Hyundai’s Supernal debuts eVTOL product concept at CES 2024
10 January 2024
Supernal LLC—Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company—unveiled S-A2, its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle product concept at CES 2024. S-A2 builds on the vision concept S-A1, which it debuted at CES 2020. Supernal will achieve commercial aviation safety levels and enable affordable manufacturing of its vehicles as it prepares to enter the market in 2028.
S-A2 is a V-tail aircraft designed to cruise 120 miles-per-hour at a 1,500-foot altitude to meet typical city operation needs of 25- to 40-mile trips, initially. It features a distributed electric propulsion architecture and has eight all-tilting rotors. At entry into service, Supernal’s vehicle will operate as quietly as a dishwasher: 65 dB in vertical take-off and landing phases and 45 dB while cruising horizontally.
The vehicle is designed with a priority on safety and a focus on sustainability and passenger comfort. Engineered to achieve the global commercial aviation standard of safety, it has a robust airframe structure including redundant components in critical systems such as powertrain, flight controls and avionics.
The all-tilting rotor configuration will power the vehicle through both the vertical-lift and horizontal-cruise phases of flight with efficiency. To maintain superior quality while also being cost-effective, the vehicle will be manufactured leveraging Hyundai’s mass production capability.
As Supernal continues to optimize its vehicle for certification, mass production and expanded use cases, the Company is also focused on interior modularity and battery upgradability. This includes the ability to replace the battery module as technology advances.
billions invested with no indication the FAA will certify
Posted by: SJC | 10 January 2024 at 11:39 AM
@SJC
I am not sure if your 'billions invested' refers to the industry in general, or Hyundai in particular.
I doubt Hyundai has invested sums of that order, so as figure for the industry as a whole, 'billions' is hardly an outlandish figure, and pretty much par for the course in any relatively new tech.
I am more familiar with Toyota and Joby, where they have put in a few hundred million, again a typical sort of level of investment to stay abreast in new tech.
Of course any new tech may fail at any number of hurdles, including regulatory.
Posted by: Davemart | 10 January 2024 at 02:39 PM
I like the design as all of the rotors are used for both vertical lift and propulsion. The other design that has this feature is the Joby. FAA will certify eVTOLs. However, the marketplace is probably far too crowded with different hopefuls and too much money chasing the market which means that there will be a number of dropouts and money lost.
Posted by: sd | 11 January 2024 at 05:50 AM
Billions refers to the industry, certification in general does not just effect just one company..
The fact that there's no proven market, even if any of them get certification is not a good business plan.
Posted by: SJC | 11 January 2024 at 02:36 PM
Here is a listing of money invested so far
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1176610/global-evtol-aircraft-market-investments-company/
Posted by: SJC | 11 January 2024 at 02:54 PM
@SJC
Thanks for a really good link.
My take though is that you are being a little bit too strict, as I am not sure how you would have a proven market at this stage, at any rate to the level you seem to think needed.
Things like medical supply delivery are what the likes of Archer see as their early target market.
Looking at the biggest figure, $1.6 billion by Joby, a substantial amount of that comes from Toyota, and compared to the money they have poured into battery development since the company was founded decades ago, is tiny, and for most of that time an all battery electric car was a far from slam dunk.
In fact, their investment in fuel cells has also to be way larger, and many battery enthusiasts here would argue that that is even more chancy.
Toyota have made it clear in their mission statements and backed up with cash that they intend to be amongst the leaders in transport whatever is powering it, and their efforts in VTOL are part of that.
Posted by: Davemart | 11 January 2024 at 03:24 PM