Eve’s air taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers up to 100 km (60 mi.).
Eve Air Mobility and its parent company Embraer have announced the selection of the first air taxi manufacturing plant in Brazil, located in the city of Taubate in Sao Paulo state.
The manufacturing site will be on a designated plot of land within Embraer’s existing manufacturing facility in the city, which will be expanded to accommodate the new air taxi facility, a July 20 statement from Eve said.
Eve describes Taubate as a “strategic logistical location” with easy road access via two highways and close proximity to a railroad. The startup also notes in a statement the region’s nearness to Embraer’s Sao Jose dos Campos headquarters–home to Eve’s engineering and human resources teams–which will “facilitate the development and sustainability of new production processes.”
“When we began our search for a manufacturing location to build our eVTOL, we wanted to reimagine how the aircraft could be built using the latest technology and manufacturing processes, coupled with other aspects such as supply chain and logistics,” Eve co-CEO Andre Stein said in a statement. “Our objective is to offer safe and reliable products and services to the market and be highly competitive in manufacturing efficiency. The team was tasked with the opportunity to design an optimized assembly line that prioritizes safety, quality, efficiency, productivity and sustainability.”
The announcement comes as Eve is working to assemble its first prototype air taxi by year’s end, with extensive flight testing planned throughout 2024 and 2025, according to recent management commentary. The company is currently targeting certification by Brazilian regulator ANAC at the end of 2025.
While Eve’s timeline puts it slightly behind U.S. startups Archer and Joby Aviation, the startup does enjoy some advantages that will assist its commercialization strategy. They include the full support of Embraer and its engineering staff and an industry-leading backlog of roughly 2,850 aircraft with an estimated value of around $8.6 billion.
Writing in a research note following the announcement, Canaccord Genuity analyst Austin Moeller notes that Eve “remains relatively well-capitalized” with $391 million in cash and will begin collecting predelivery payments worth roughly 25% of the cost of its air taxis next year “as remotely operated and manned flights of the vehicle make advancements.”
Eve was tied with AutoFlight in fifth place among advanced air mobility (AAM) startups in the latest edition of SMG Consulting’s AAM Reality Index with a score of 7.2 out of 10, behind Joby, Archer and Volocopter, respectively.
