Electric plane can carry 90 passengers 500 miles on a single charge

“One of the reasons the aviation industry is so skeptical about large electric aircraft is that electrifying a modern aircraft requires making some pretty wild assumptions about how battery technology would evolve,” said Daniel Rosen Jacobson, co-CEO of Elysian.

The startup tried to get around that problem by rethinking the plane’s design to squeeze every drop of performance out of current battery technology, he said.

The result is the E9X concept, a 90-seat electric plane about the size of an A320 that can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge.

The E9X has larger wings and a sleeker body than most conventional aircraft, and instead of two to four jet engines, has 8 propeller engines powered by batteries placed in the wings. This design aims to make the E-9X aircraft as light as possible.

The plane would also be equipped with foldable wingtips, which Elysian says will improve the plane’s aerodynamics and allow it to fit through gates designed for current aircraft.

For now, the E9X model exists only on paper, and Elysian plans to build a full-scale prototype by 2030.

Jacobson believes that if the E9X and other large, short-haul, electric jets become a reality, they could significantly reduce the aviation industry’s CO2 emissions and change the way flights are flown.

“Using planes will become much more attractive than other modes of transport,” he said, adding that quieter electric engines would “very likely” make flying a much quieter experience.

Electric planes have not taken to the air

Over the past few years, several promising projects to build an electric airplane have failed.

Both NASA and Rolls Royce abandoned plans to build electric planes last year. Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, abandoned plans to develop an ultralight electric flying car in 2020 and shut down in 2022.

Experts have expressed skepticism that existing batteries have enough energy density — the amount of energy they can store relative to their mass — to power all but the smallest planes.

“In my opinion, the main bottleneck is still the power source; current batteries are too heavy for the amount of energy they deliver.

This means that for now, electric propulsion is only viable for small aircraft with limited range,” said Sophie Armanini, lecturer at the Faculty of Aeronautics. Robotics at Imperial College London, he told Politico.

Elysian believes there is a way around this issue with the E9X, but Jacobson acknowledged that bringing large electric aircraft to market will still be a challenge.

He said the E9X model would require a charging capacity of around 11 to 13 megawatts, adding that Elysian had been in contact with one energy company that offered a price of less than 10 million euros ($10.9 million) to install the necessary charging infrastructure.

Jacobson believes the amount is relatively small compared to the scale of airport infrastructure upgrades, adding that the transformative impact of large electric aircraft will make it a small price to pay.

“Until now, the industry didn’t think there was a commercial electric solution. Now, with this concept, there is,” he said.