India Unveils First Electric Air Taxi Prototype e200X

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Chennai-based deep-tech startup The ePlane Company, nurtured at IIT Madras, has revealed e200X (PT-01).
This is India's first full-scale prototype of an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

An eVTOL aircraft is a battery-powered air vehicle that produces zero emissions and is often called an electric air taxi.
It lifts off and lands straight up and down like a helicopter, then switches to forward wing flight like a regular airplane.
Engineers at The ePlane Company designed, built, and assembled the entire e200X aircraft in-house.

Instead of using complex tilting engines, the vehicle uses separate propulsion systems: 6 vertical rotors for hovering and 4 forward propellers for regular flying.
It features Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), meaning if one motor fails, other motors automatically adjust power so the aircraft lands safely.
A patented wing structure gives aerodynamic lift at lower speeds, keeping the aircraft steady without needing wide wings.
An 800V electric power system feeds data into the NVIDIA IGX Thor platform, combining cameras, LiDAR, and radar to give pilots a 360° view in busy city skies.

The aircraft measures just 8 meters × 11 meters, allowing it to land on regular helipads and hospital roofs without special vertiports.
Its structure uses light carbon-fiber materials, bringing its total loaded weight to 2 tonnes.
It can carry 1 pilot alongside a 200 kg payload, which fits 2 passengers or a critical patient with a paramedic.
The air taxi travels up to 110 km on a single battery charge.
Before building the physical model, engineers ran virtual tests on NVIDIA Omniverse and completed over 10,000 km of test flights on smaller models.

The vehicle can fly patients, doctors, and medical tools above jammed city streets during emergencies.
It can also provide quick rides to airports and speed up cargo deliveries along fixed routes in cities.