Sarla Aviation's eVTOL Vision: Cutting Bengaluru’s Airport Commute to Minutes…But Can It Take Off?

🔍Insights

Rishi Mundra, Apoorva Bajj

Oct 16, 2024 — 3 min read

Sarla Aviation's eVTOL Vision

Bengaluru is infamous for its traffic, often turning even the simplest commute into a test of patience. But in a potentially game-changing move, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has teamed up with Sarla Aviation to bring a futuristic travel solution straight out of a sci-fi movie. This partnership aims to cut down the 1.5-hour drive to the airport to just five minutes, (yes, you read that right) using an electric-powered, seven-seater aircraft known as eVTOL.

If you’re wondering what on earth an eVTOL is, it stands for "electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing" aircraft, essentially an airborne vehicle that lifts off and lands like a helicopter but runs entirely on electric power. Sarla Aviation, an aerospace component manufacturing company, announced this partnership with BIAL, making Bengaluru India’s first airport to provide such advanced air mobility solutions.

The prospect of zipping over traffic in an electric air taxi sounds almost too good to be true, but Sarla Aviation insists it’s closer to reality than we might think. According to the company, their eVTOL is designed to slash commute times in urban settings. Here's a better real world example for Bengaluru Folks: what usually takes 152 minutes by road from Electronics City to the Bengaluru Airport could be reduced to under 20 minutes. Thus, it is like flying over the chaos of trucks, buses, and bikes at a breezy 250 km/h, cutting through city congestion like a hot knife through butter.

What’s particularly fascinating is the tech behind this marvel. The eVTOL runs on four double-isolated battery packs powering seven electric motors. It’s capable of flying distances of up to 160 km, though it’s optimised for those short, often infuriating 20-40 km inner-city trips that make city life so exasperating. In the future, this tech could be a game changer for anyone who regularly deals with urban sprawl right from a daily commuter or a business traveller desperate to avoid missing yet another flight.

Now, as exciting as this innovation sounds, it’s worth noting the practicality of it all. First, there’s the matter of cost. Sarla Aviation has pegged a ticket for the Bengaluru Airport-Electronics City route at ₹1,700. While that’s not prohibitive for frequent flyers or business professionals, it’s still not in the budget-friendly range for the average commuter.

If Sarla wants mass adoption, pricing strategies will need a rethink, especially as they expand to other cities like Mumbai and Delhi. The company claims the aircraft can perform back-to-back 40 km trips with just 15 minutes of charging in between. However, the real test will be infrastructure. It’s one thing to develop futuristic air taxis. However, it’s another to ensure they integrate seamlessly into a city’s existing transportation ecosystem.

Bengaluru is notorious for its infrastructural limitations, and questions remain about whether the city can support these flying taxis at scale. What will the environmental impact be? How will regulations adapt? There’s also the challenge of public perception — many might hesitate before jumping into an aircraft for a 20-minute hop to the airport.

Sarla Aviation has been proactive in addressing these concerns. Last week, they met with Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to discuss policies around urban air mobility. Their goal? To make India a leader in this space and ensure smooth regulatory pathways for advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies.

It’s an ambitious vision, and the success of this project could set a precedent for cities across the country. While the dream of soaring above Bengaluru’s infamous gridlock sounds enticing, there’s no denying the hurdles Sarla Aviation faces. From pricing and infrastructure to regulatory challenges, their journey has just begun. But if they can pull it off, Bengaluru could become a model city for how urban air mobility can revolutionise the way we travel through the congested metropolises.

At the end of the day, Sarla Aviation’s partnership with BIAL feels like a step toward the future. Whether this takes off (pun intended) will depend not just on technological innovation, but also on how thoughtfully the company approaches real-world challenges like affordability, scalability, and public trust.