Specialist
Executive at Jaunt Air Mobility LLC
Agenda
- Competitive landscape including key secular dynamics
- Growth opportunities, infrastructure build-out and end market usage
- Regulatory hurdles including FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) certification and autonomy
- Short-to-long-term outlook and eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) commercial adoption
Questions
1.
How has the eVTOL [electric vertical take-off and landing] segment evolved over the past few years? What major secular trends are occurring?
2.
When do you roughly expect wide-scale eVTOL application and adoption? What are the considerations for commercial vs cargo or piloted vs autonomous, especially if companies are guiding 2024-25 for the initial operations and flights? Could wide-scale adoption be achieved by the end of the decade? How are you conceptualising this?
3.
Could you elaborate on infrastructure build-out for the applications? How does eVTOL present a unique opportunity with infrastructure costs? Do you expect most infrastructure to be retrofitted on the commercial side?
4.
How might eVTOL players interact with airlines? How are you thinking about current air infrastructure and the ownership of eVTOL air taxi vertiports and launch sites? Do you think there will be shared or individual take-off sites?
5.
Do you think the ownership model makes long-term sense given the operational element and working alongside airlines? Joby Aviation is following the ownership model whereas Archer Aviation has two – direct sales and part owner-operator model. How might the different operational models play out?
6.
What potential TAM do you expect for commercial application? Reports estimate USD 1tn-1.5tn and there’s been a great deal of market investment. What would you highlight around the investments, especially relative to current development cycles and the limited execution?
7.
Morgan Stanley’s report pushes expectations for an aggressive inflection point closer to 2040 whereas other companies are largely indicating 2030. What is your outlook on a possible market inflection point and how realistic are the aforementioned projections?
8.
Which major players are you monitoring in the eVTOL segment across commercial and cargo applications? You touched on Joby, Archer and Lilium but what are the main competitive differentiators? Which players might be better-positioned vs in a riskier position?
9.
What are the cost considerations around the key value chain and technology monitoring for fuel or energy sources and materials? Carbon fibre has become increasingly important in eVTOL vehicles. What’s the risk of any commodity price inflations and alternative materials for the future?
10.
Lithium-ion batteries – due to the weight and power density – seem to be the hottest power source for eVTOL companies, but how might that affect potential scalability? Lighter battery potentials such as lithium-sulphur batteries have also been suggested. How are you assessing that power source supply?
11.
How might the different technologies and materials used for eVTOL crafts affect the maintenance aspect? What are the considerations relative to traditional aircraft maintenance cycles and costs?
12.
Is there anything additional you would like to highlight or say in conclusion about the eVTOL market?
