The ePlane Company targets commercial production of eVTOL air ambulances by 2028

Key facts

• The ePlane Company, an Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras)-incubated start-up, aims to begin commercial production of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) air ambulances by 2028.
• The company targets an initial manufacturing capacity of 80 aircraft per year, scaling to 300-400 annually within a few years and reaching 900 aircraft per year by 2031-32.
• The ePlane Company has secured a $1-billion order from ICATT to deliver air ambulances across India, with deliveries starting in 2027-28 to eventually deploy one aircraft in every district.
• Approximately 80 per cent of the aircraft's bill of materials is sourced domestically, though imported avionics and battery cells account for more than half of the component costs.
• The start-up is collaborating with NVIDIA to utilise the Omniverse platform for onboard sensor processing and digital twin simulations.