Should Aerospace Be Scared by Hyundai’s
Move into Urban Air Mobility?
South Korean
automaker Hyundai continues to snap up talent for its urban air mobility (UAM)
division, hiring Michael Whitaker, former deputy administrator of the Federal
Aviation Administration, as its global head of policy.
Hyundai announced
its entrance to the UAM space in October 2019, pledging to invest $1.5 billion
towards development in the next few years and hiring longtime NASA aeronautics director Dr. Jaiwon Shin to
lead the company’s new division.
Other key hires by
Hyundai UAM include:
- Scott Drennan, former vice president of
engineering innovation at Bell, now chief of R&D for Hyundai UAM
- Pamela Cohn, founder and managing partner of Ascension
Global, now vice president and head of global operations and strategy at
Hyundai UAM. (The automaker brought the rest of Cohn’s team at Ascension
in-house as well.)
- Diana Marina Cooper, former senior vice
president of policy and strategy at PrecisionHawk, now head of U.S. policy
at Hyundai UAM
In January, Hyundai
unveiled its S-A1 vehicle concept and partnership with Uber’s Elevate ecosystem
at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, though its strategy expands beyond
providing vehicles to external operators. At CES 2020, Dr. Jaiwon Shin shared a vision for linked aerial and
ground mobility that included hubs and ground vehicles.
“Hyundai brings
decades of highly safe and reliable manufacturing at scale, which positions us
well to add value as a leading UAM vehicle developer and manufacturer. However,
our strategy expands far beyond the vehicle itself. Hyundai's vision is to
build human-centered cities through innovative mobility solutions,” Pamela Cohn
told Avionics International, adding that the company is working
with policymakers and regulators across the U.S., EU and Asia-Pacific.
Hyundai is one of
several automakers with declared UAM projects, likely understanding that peak
sales of internal combustion engine cars are behind them and pursuing aerial
mobility alongside other bets like autonomous driving and electric cars.
Porsche, Audi and Daimler are among other auto-turned-aero players, and Toyota
recently invested $394 million in another Uber partner, Joby
Aviation, which intends to begin production of its electric VTOL
aircraft in Marina, California.
“The aerospace
industry should be very concerned about their disintermediation, or their
obsolescence, by the auto industry,” Kirsten Bartok Touw, managing partner at
AirFinance, told Avionics. “There has always been a question of
whether advanced air mobility fits better with the auto industry or with
aerospace. Aerospace folks argue that automakers don’t know how to meet
aerospace levels of certification, but on the other hand, aerospace has no idea
how to produce things in volume units. In a best-case scenario, we could be
looking at production of up to 25,000 vehicles annually in this space. Aero
manufacturers, at best, still don’t make a thousand per year.”
“So, I think what
you’re seeing is an attempt by the auto industry to own this space, and that’s
why you see so much investment by Toyota, by Daimler and other folks,” added
Bartok. “And I believe the aerospace industry should be very, very scared.”
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