Enel X Way and UrbanV collaborate to fast track sustainable eVTOLs

Enel’s electric mobility company and UrbanV are partnering up to develop the knowledge and infrastructure necessary for eVTOL sustainable charging solutions.

Enel Group subsidiary Enel X Way, which is dedicated to electric mobility, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UrbanV, a company specialising in advanced air mobility, on joint global projects.

The collaboration will see the two research energy solutions for UrbanV’s vertiports that will allow eVTOL – Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft – to be charged in a sustainable way.

Such projects will involve researching and building Enel X Way electrical infrastructures to be integrated with energy storage systems in vertiports – dedicated hubs for eVTOLs – defining specific usage cases and offering a customer experience that can be tailored to market needs.

Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft exclusively rely on electricity to fly by using electric engines and batteries, which are the best way to meet growing global interest and demand in this sector of electric mobility.

Through the agreement, the two aim to develop a fully green and fast means of public transport available for use on a large scale. Enel X Way charging infrastructures will be implemented in UrbanV’s vertiports worldwide, starting with Rome and Fiumicino.

Enel X Way will be supplying the technological infrastructure for managing vertiports and charging the flying taxis. After an initial test phase, the service is hoped to be available as early as 2024 for passengers.

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“By signing this MoU, we have become the first company in Italy to provide charging solutions for electric vertical take-off aircraft, which truly is a remarkable achievement after that of electric boating and which enables us to explore a new field when it comes to the development of sustainable mobility,” said Lorenzo Rambaldi, head of innovability at Enel X Way.

“Advanced air mobility is an extremely innovative and fast-growing sector, both in Italy and worldwide, and helping it to grow is an opportunity for Enel X Way to increase its commitment to developing advanced charging technologies to power various types of electric vehicles.

According to Enel, industry estimates show that eVTOLs have 35% lower operating costs than helicopters and have the potential to become an inexpensive and sustainable alternative to road transport, especially in heavily congested cities.

UrbanV also recently opened the first test vertiport at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, where the first piloted eVTOL was flown.

Carlo Tursi, CEO of UrbanV, said: “UrbanV is emerging as one of the global leaders in the field of advanced air mobility and is striving to make Rome one of the first cities in the world to offer direct connections with electric aircraft.

“We are currently building networks of vertiports in other regions of Europe (such as in Venice, Bologna, and the French Riviera) and even worldwide in order to accelerate the transition to mobility so as to reduce not only CO2 emissions but also noise pollution.”