Eve Urban Mobility Solutions owned by Embraer and Widerøe Zero, a unit of Widerøe, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop urban air mobility solutions focused on electric vertical-take-off-and-landing (e-VTOL) aircraft.
"Widerøe Zero is excited to work with Eve on the eVTOL concept. Although initially designed for Urban Air Mobility, we expect these highly flexible vehicles to be interesting in a variety of applications also in rural areas; from cargo to passenger transportation. Our partnership with Eve is part of our plan to accelerate the development of sustainable aviation in Norway," Chief Executive at Widerøe Zero Andreas Kollbye Aks said.
The electric mobility incubator owned by the Norwegian regional carrier has committed to assisting the manufacturer in "market readiness exercises". The two companies will also jointly study the operational requirements for the new aircraft type. The MoU does not include any mention of a potential order.
Widerøe, which focuses on serving thin domestic routes in Norway, has been at the forefront of fleet decarbonisation. It has a partnership with Italian manufacturer Costruzioni Aeronautiche TECNAM and Rolls-Royce to take delivery and induct into service the first all-electric TECNAM P-Volt by 2026. The carrier, dependent on the domestic market, is attuned to the Norwegian government's plans to fully electrify domestic air travel by 2040.
The airline is an existing customer of Embraer with a fleet of three E190-E2s, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. It was the type's global launch customer in 2018.
Recently, Fahari Aviation, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), signed a similar MoU with Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions.
