Volocopter Strongly Considering Singapore For Air Taxi Launch

Daimler-backed Volocopter, a German startup, is strongly considering launching its air taxis in Singapore, offering short commercial flights to customers for the price of a limousine ride.

The company’s co-founder, Alexander Zosel, is even working with Singapore regulators in order to conduct a public test flight in the coming months. Singapore, together with Dubai and Germany are the markets most open to Volocopter’s air taxis, reports Autonews Europe.

“For the commercial routes, we have two customer profiles: one is a business customer, so perhaps from the airport to the business center, or for tourists flying from Marina Bay to Sentosa,” stated Zosel in an interview with Reuters.

Marina Bay is of course Singapore’s business district, while Sentosa is its popular resort island.

Volocopter is currently looking for even more financial partners in a founding round that’s set to close in January 2020. Aside from Daimler, Intel and Geely are also among the German startup’s backers – all three own around 10% of the company.

Also read: German Air Taxi Completes First Test Flight Successfully

The plan is to roll out drone-like taxis that resemble small helicopters (powered by 18 rotors) in two to three years time, and the 85 million euros ($93 million) raised so far should definitely help with that.

Volocopter has clocked over 1,000 test flights, some with a human pilot, while others were by remote control. According to Zosel, the first commercial flights will be piloted, which means there will only be room for one passenger initially.

However, in five to ten years time, he hopes to transition to fully autonomous flying.