Airbus Helicopters will pause its CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL demonstrator programme later this year, saying battery technology needs to evolve before it can launch a successful UAM programme.
“As part of the Company’s constant review of its strategy we have decided to postpone the launch of a UAM programme,” said the company in a briefing statement to journalists. “The ongoing development testing of our CityAirbus prototype will continue throughout 2025, after which the project will be paused for the time being. Our investment in UAM over the last 10 years has been instrumental to advancing our understanding of technologies that are relevant across the Airbus portfolio, in distributed propulsion, energy storage, battery management, etc…
“As we’ve always said, the development of a viable UAM economy is dependent on many factors and today we still see some of the key technologies that need to continue to evolve.”
According to Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even during a recent briefing on the company’s 2024 performance: “We learned a lot with CityAirbus NextGen, and our ten years of investment in the urban air mobility prototype has been clearly instrumental to advance our understanding of technologies which are not only relevant for this urban mobility market, but for all our portfolio and across the Airbus portfolio,” he said.