IIT Madras-incubated electric aircraft start-up The ePlane Company is targeting commercial production of its air ambulance eVTOLs in 2028 with an initial manufacturing capacity of around 80 aircraft a year.
Speaking to businessline, Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, The ePlane Company said that the start-up has completed its first full-scale air ambulance prototype and has begun ground testing with flight tests expected between July and August. “We have already begun work on the second and expect to have full certification of the aircraft by the end of 2027,” he added.
Chakravarthy mentioned that while the start-up currently manufactures prototypes at its facility within IIT Madras’ Discovery Campus, it expects to set up a dedicated production unit or partner with an established manufacturer once the second prototype enters the certification phase.
“We are looking at a capacity of about 80 in the first year and then scale it up to about 300-400 aircraft annually within a few years before reaching about 900 aircraft a year by 2031-32. We are looking at multiple options and should get into serious talks with a production partner early next year,” he added.
He added that the company’s initial focus is on air ambulances, followed by air taxis and cargo variants.
The eplane company had earlier this year secured a $1-billion order from ICATT to deliver air ambulances across India. Chakravarthy mentioned that the deliveries will be spread over five to six years beginning 2027-28 and that ICATT intends to eventually deploy roughly one aircraft in every district across India.
On the production side, Chakravarthy mentioned that about 80 per cent of the aircraft’s bill of materials is currently sourced domestically, but in value terms imported avionics and battery cells account for more than half of component costs. The company plans to gradually localise these components after certification, either through technology transfer or domestic manufacturing partnerships.
Meanwhile, the company is also working with NVIDIA to use the teach giant’s Omniverse platform for onboard sensor processing and digital twin simulations.