Electric batteries group Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL) is set to make a strategic investment in eVTOL aircraft developer AutoFlight. On August 3, the Chinese companies announced that CATL would invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in AutoFlight and would collaborate in battery development and manufacturing for eVTOL vehicles, including the four-passenger Prosperity model.
CATL will make its research and development resources available to AutoFlight to support efforts to increase the range and payload of eVTOL aircraft. Both companies are based in China but also have facilities in Germany, where AutoFlight is conducting much of its engineering work for the Prosperity aircraft.
To date, AutoFlight’s main strategic investor has been the European technology group Team Global, founded by Lukasz Gadowski. It is also funded by its founder and chairman Tian Yu.
On April 30, the Civil Aviation Administration of China accepted AutoFlight’s type certificate application for the piloted Prosperity aircraft. The regulator approved the application five weeks after it issued a type certificate for AutoFlight’s uncrewed CarryAll eVTOL freighter.
On August 1, AutoFlight conducted its latest public demonstration with a prototype of the Prosperity, which flew a sortie across the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province. Simulating a sightseeing trip, the aircraft took off from the Pukhou High-Tech Zone in the city of Nanjing and then circled at around 800 feet above the river before over-flying the Yuzui Wetland Park and returning to its base.
This flight followed previous demonstrations in which AutoFlight claimed a world record for flying the Prosperity prototype 250.3 km (155.5 miles). The Shanghai-based company has also flown three aircraft in formation and conducted a trial air taxi flight from Shenzhen to Zhuhai.