Photo: DLR
According to reports from the German news agency DPA and the US news agency Bloomberg, the flying taxi manufacturer Volocopter is on the verge of being acquired by its Chinese shareholder Geely, which currently holds a 40 percent stake in the company. eVTOL competitor Lilium filed for insolvency in October.
The market for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft based on drone technology, intended for future urban transport, remains challenging. Swiss Post also experienced this firsthand when, although it deployed unmanned aerial vehicles in pilot projects for transporting laboratory samples between 2017 and 2022, and even won the GS1 Swiss Logistics Award in 2017 for a project in Ticino, it faced significant challenges.
From 2018 to 2022, laboratory samples were transported by drone on behalf of the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) and the University of Zurich. The route led from a roof terrace of the north wing at the USZ to the University of Zurich Irchel campus at Winterthurerstrasse 190. The drone flew – wherever possible – over wooded areas. The aircraft covered the 2.5-kilometer distance in four minutes. Regardless of traffic conditions, it thus completed the route twice as fast and more environmentally friendly than a courier on the road.
Matternet drone in Lugano. Photo: Swiss Post
However, incidents such as the 2019 crash over Lake Zurich led to the postal service returning pilot projects of this kind to the manufacturer, Matternet. A report by the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) concluded that it was only by sheer luck that no children playing nearby at a forest kindergarten were injured.
The Chinese conglomerate Geely, which owns brands such as Volvo and Polestar, acquired a minority stake in Volocopter in 2019. Zhihao Xu, CEO of Geely Technology, has served on the advisory board of the Bruchsal-based air taxi startup since September 2024. According to Bloomberg sources, the cash injection into the struggling company was expected to amount to approximately US$95 million (around €90 million); in return, Geely would receive a majority stake of about 85 percent. Reportedly, this would mean that the Baden-based air taxi company, which was valued at €1.5 billion two years ago, would now be valued at only around US$110 million (€104 million).
Image: Volocopter
Since the end of 2017, Geely has not only been the largest shareholder in Volvo Trucks AB (the passenger car division was spun off in 1999) through a $1.8 billion investment, but also, in 2019, with the help of derivatives and two US banks, the largest single shareholder in Mercedes-Benz, holding a 9.7 percent stake. Since then, the Stuttgart-based company has been trying to keep its main competitor out of the supervisory board. Back in 2009, the German magazine "Autobild" already mocked Geely for building an almost exact replica of the "Lolls Loyce" under the direction of its CEO, Li Shufu, and openly presenting the copy at a motor show.
klk. / www.Heise.de / dpa / www.bloomberg.com
