Kittyhawk claims eVTOLs can be more energy efficient than cars(techcrunch.com)

2 pointsby throw_awy_16 anni fa1 comments

Kittyhawk claims eVTOLs can be more energy efficient than cars

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/21/the-future-of-flight-can-be-energy-efficient/

1 comments

Kittyhawk has done some really interesting work in the eVTOL space and have shared some of their thoughts on the energy requirements vs. electric cars. The comparison has some gaps that make it seem less than apples to apples.

1. The comparison seems to only include energy use at cruising. There's no mention of ascent and decent which consumes the most energy. It may be interesting to look at the total energy consumed per-passenger for the average 16 mile commute the company claims.

2. The author carefully explains how they calculated the passenger-mile energy for a Nissan Leaf (energy per mile / average occupancy) or 275/1.6 = 171. Then claims that Heaviside uses only 120W per passenger-mile without explaining the average occupancy. So X/Y = 120. Perhaps they are only using a passenger occupancy of 1 (it only has one seat, for the pilot) but it's unclear.

3. How do things change when the aircraft must be larger & heavier to carry more passengers?