This new Airbus air taxi has a 50-mile range and is quieter than a hairdryer
Airbus has introduced its latest zero-emission eVTOL, designed to carry four people with a noise decibel range lower than a hairdryer when flying – which will radically cut into the noise pollution factor of a futuristic vision of eVTOLs buzzing around busy cities. Nearly five years in the making, this prototype targets a flight range of 50 miles (80 km) and a cruising speed of 75 mph (120 km/h).
Airbus’s latest prototype, the CityAirbus NextGen – unveiled at the opening of its new CityAirbus test center, which will be dedicated to testing systems for eVTOLs, in Donauwörth, Germany – is set to take its maiden flight this year.
The CityAirbus NextGen is an electric lift-plus-cruise vehicle designed for a variety of travel in major cities, including passenger transport, medical services, and ecotourism. Airbus says it will partner with operators and airlines to fly the model worldwide, with plans for it to take flight in Italy, Germany, Norway, and Japan, as well as regions in Latin America.
While at first, the CityAirbus will be flown by a pilot, it’s equipped with an operational automated flight mode that could enable future autonomous flying.
The aircraft, which can reach cruising speeds of 65 knots (about 75 mph) weighs two tons and has a 40-foot wingspan – so it’s by no means a tiny aircraft. It has a V-shaped tail, fixed wings, and a distributed electric propulsion system, with 16 electric power units and eight electric propellers. Back when Airbus introduced the NextGen design in 2021, it promised that these features keep sound levels to below 65 A-weighted decibels (dBA) during fly-over and below 70 dBA during landing – so that’s about the sound of a hairdryer or vacuum cleaner at landing, even less in flight. Perhaps closer to people talking loudly. Of course, Joby Aviation has its own air taxi that is 45.2 dBA when flying overheard, which it says is quieter than a typical conversation.
Electrek’s Take
Airbus is among many companies working on an electric aviation future, including US’s privately held Beta with its sleek CX300, a plane with a 50-foot wingspan, as well as establish players like Boeing and Embraer. In California, the aforementioned Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, backed by companies like Toyota, Stellantis, and Delta and United Airlines, are both developing battery-powered eVTOLs like Airbus’s. Since today’s batteries can support limited range and weight, these aircraft, for now at least, are designed to just carry a few passengers for short distances, putting their usefulness in competition with helicopters or even trucks for cargo. Of course the costs of producing these aircraft are astronomical to start, so we can just expect a few well-heeled passengers to be ferried around, or for critical services like medical evacuations on the immediate horizon, with the promise of a broader future on the horizon.
Then again, some companies have stopped gambling on an electric aviation future altogether and have turned their focus to low-carbon fuels.
Photo: Courtesy of Airbus
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LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has just announced its latest electric motorcycle model. The new LiveWire S2 Alpanista is built on the same platform as the brand’s last two models, leveraging the Arrow platform as a versatile foundation for several diverse bikes.
The Arrow platform first received its debut with the LiveWire S2 Del Mar, which was then followed by the S2 Mulholland.
LiveWire announced that a high-performance electric maxi-scooter would be produced on the Arrow platform, but not before the company rolled out the S2 Alpinista. “The Alpinista is LiveWire’s first sport standard,” explained the company, “equipped with 17” wheels and tires, blending the best of street, sport, and hyper-tourer characteristics.”
The recently unveiled S2 Alpinista is mechanically quite similar to the two previous models sharing the platform. The 10.5 kWh battery that serves as the main structure of the bike will offer a maximum range of 120 miles (193 km) per charge under city riding conditions. It can be recharged with a Level 2 charger from 20-80% in just 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The 433 lb (196 kg) bike can achieve a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of just 3.0 seconds, thanks to its powerful 63 kW (84 hp) motor. The S2 Alpinista can also reach an electronically limited top speed of 99 mph (159 km/h).
Priced at US $15,999 and already available at LiveWire dealerships in North America and Europe, the S2 Alpinista officially becomes the most affordable LiveWire electric motorcycle available to date, undercutting the $16,249 S2 Del Mar electric street tracker and the $16,499 Mulholland electric sport cruiser.
“Alpinista reimagines the S2 by combining the urban agility of a supermoto with the do-it-all nature of a touring bike, creating a practical and thrilling sport standard,” explained the brand.
The smaller 17″ wheels help reduce the seat height of the bike, and combined with the Dunlop Roadsmart IV tires, the street-optimized bike is ideal for “both daily commutes and spirited rides through winding roads.”
The S2 Alpinista comes with 6-axis IMU from Bosch providing cornering-enhanced antilock braking and cornering-enhanced traction control systems, in addition to four preset ride modes and two custom modes.
Now the third model launched on the Arrow platform, the S2 Alpanista underscores the versatility of LiveWire’s workhorse. The approach was intended to allow the e-motorcycle offshoot to quickly innovate with multiple styles of motorcycles all sharing key structural and drivetrain components. The move has largely been seen as an engineering success, with three models hitting the road in under three years. However, sales have yet to reach targets set by LiveWire as the more premium electric motorcycle industry has experienced a rocky few years.
As a LiveWire S2 Del Mar owner myself, I can attest to both the performance and enjoyable experience of bikes built on the platform, though I do find myself in a somewhat smaller community than LiveWire had likely hoped for. With the backing of its powerful older brother H-D, which retains a controlling stake in the company, LiveWire has enjoyed the relative freedom to cruise for its first few years and focus on motorcycle development and rollouts, with profitability hopefully coming over the horizon in due time.
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