TOYOTA, JAPAN, February 21, 2023– SkyDrive Inc. (“SkyDrive”), a leading Japanese eVTOL1 manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, announced today that it has been selected as a company to participate in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) “Smart Mobility Expo” project, one of the “Future Society Showcase Project Exhibitions” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan (“the Expo”).
SkyDrive was established in July 2018 with the mission of “taking the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution” and its vision is to create a future where everyone uses eVTOLs as their daily transportation in Japan and across the world. The company succeeded in the first crewed flight test in Japan in 2019 and has further advanced the development of eVTOL aircraft since then. SkyDrive aims to launch an air taxi service during the Expo in 2025.
In order to accelerate the movement towards the social implementation of AAM in the Osaka area, SkyDrive has been a member of the Roundtable established by the Osaka Prefectural Government in November 2020 since its inception. SkyDrive has been working with various stakeholders and involved in activities to promote understanding and social acceptance among local residents. In 2021, the company signed a partnership agreement2 with Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City to further increase the recognition of this project.
When the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition (“the Association”) announced the call for applications for the operators of AAM in the “Smart Mobility Expo” in December 2022, SkyDrive applied and was selected3 in February 2023.
Details including routes, frequency of flights, number of aircraft in operation, and flight fare will be discussed and decided with the Association and related parties.
“SkyDrive has been aiming to fly SD-054 (an eVTOL aircraft currently under development) at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan to give a sense of a future with AAM. We are deeply honored and excited to be selected as one of the participating companies in the ‘Smart Mobility Expo’ project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all stakeholders and employees who have supported SkyDrive in various ways,” said Tomohiro Fukuzawa, the Founder and CEO of SkyDrive Inc, and continued, “We are once again aware of the expectations for AAM at the Expo site and excited about the challenges ahead. We will continue to steadily promote business and aircraft development so that people around the world can witness and experience the arrival of advanced air mobility. We look forward to the future norm in a decade or two, where everyone can use the sky for daily transportation.”
About Future Society Showcase Projects
This is a general term to mention a group of projects that provide experiences to a wide range of participants and visitors from Japan and abroad by utilizing technologies and services that support the theme of the Expo, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” for the development, operation, exhibition, and events of the Expo site which will be a “People’s Living Lab”, in the form of “demonstration” that gives a sense of the future after 2025 and “implementation” that is suitable for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
About SkyDrive Inc.
SkyDrive was established in July 2018 and since then, the company has advanced the development of “flying cars” and heavy lift cargo drones while working in partnership with other companies around the world to promote the shared vision of a future in which people use air mobility as a means of transportation in their daily lives. The company’s cargo drones, which can carry payloads of up to 30kg, are currently being used at worksites in remote mountainous areas in Japan. SkyDrive is aiming to launch a “flying car” service in the Osaka Bay area in 2025. SkyDrive is headquartered in Toyota, Aichi. Tomohiro Fukuzawa is the CEO of the company.
For more information, please visit: https://en.skydrive2020.com/
EDITOR’S NOTE
- eVTOL is short for electric vertical takeoff and landing. eVTOLs are characterized by electrification, autopilot, and vertical takeoff and landing. As a new advancement in the field of mobility, the development of eVTOLs is being promoted in many countries around the world. In Japan, the Public-Private Council for Air Mobility Revolution was established in 2018 with meetings held since then.
- Related press release: https://en.skydrive2020.com/archives/6010
- Related press release: https://www.expo2025.or.jp/en/news/news-20230221-01/
- Related press release: https://en.skydrive2020.com/archives/7418
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Risa OISHI
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info@skydrive.co.jp