Hyundai’s Supernal to build plant in US to make first flying electric taxis

Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s third-biggest automaker by sales, plans to build a facility in the US where its air mobility division Supernal will make flying electric taxis intended to be used by commuters. A prototype of the electric vertical take-off and landing craft will be shown at CES in Las Vegas in January, Supernal CEO Shin Jaiwon said. The eVTOL taxi will be capable of flying at 120 miles an hour (190 kph) and have capacity for one pilot and four passengers. December 2024 is the target for a test flight, with ambitions to start commercial service four years later, Shin said in an interview this week with Bloomberg News in Singapore. “Considering all the battery technology and all the infrastructure and regulation to come along, it’s going to take some time,” he said. Batteries are the biggest technical challenge for electric air mobility, accounting for up to 40% of an eVTOL craft’s weight. “That’s really the killer,” Shin said. “From the operation side, we don’t have air traffic management systems to govern these vehicles,” he said. “Up until this point, even the foreseeable future, we don’t have man-made objects flying routinely below 500 meters.”<br/>