The Hyundai Group, manufacturers of many of our favorite electric cars, has set its sights on becoming a leader in electric aircraft. At CES 2024, Hyundai’s advanced air mobility wing Supernal pulled back the curtain on its new, second-generation S-A2, an electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, air taxi. The Korean company announced that it’ll take to the air as early as 2028.
Hyundai has been working on the eVTOL for a few years now. You may remember at CES 2020 it first debuted the Hyundai Urban Air Mobility SA-1 in partnership with Uber Air. At the time, first flights were estimated to begin around 2023. Today, Uber Air is no more, Hyundai Urban Air Mobility is now Supernal and its second-generation S-A2 has shifted the hyphen in its name and its expected launch window.
Watch this: Hyundai, Supernal S-A2 Electric Air Taxi Preps for Launch
The battery powered aircraft features space for four passengers, their luggage and a pilot within its V-tail fuselage. Eight rotors provide thrust for the craft. In the vertical take-off mode, the forward four point up while the rear four angle down. Once in the air, the craft can transform, rotating all eight rotors to a horizontal orientation for more efficient fixed-wing flight.
The VTOL design means that it can take off from a helipad, making it ideal for operation in cities where it can launch from and land on rooftops. And because it’s fully electric, the craft should be quieter than traditional helicopters, both inside and out. I’m told the S-A2 only gets up to 65 dB inside — about as loud as a vacuum cleaner — during takeoff and drops to 45 dB when cruising, so passengers shouldn’t have to wear headsets to protect their hearing and talk to each other.
Supernal estimates that the average flight will range from 25 to 40 miles with a top speed of 120 mph and a cruising altitude of 1,500 feet — much lower and slower than a commercial flight with much shorter range. Supernal tells us that the S-A2’s purpose isn’t to replace commercial airlines, but to complement them. Its eVTOL’s performance is good enough for short distances such as getting from a busy, congested city center to an airport on the outskirts in minutes rather than being stuck in traffic for hours.
The craft’s rotors can rotate to a vertical orientation for takeoff or horizontal for efficient fixed-wing flight.
The e-aeronautics brand says that the S-A2’s modular design means that as battery technology continues to improve, the aircraft will improve with it — slotting in faster charging or more energy-dense storage as the technology comes available. Hyundai also emphasized that it has the means to actually mass-produce the S-A2 using the modular, cell-based manufacturing techniques currently being pioneered in its highly automated HMGICS Singapore plant, which I was able to visit recently.
The craft certainly looks slick onstage. And electric aircraft and battery technology have advanced enough over the last four years that the concept of an electric air taxi is still exciting and, hopefully, achievable. Supernal leadership certainly thinks that its eVTOL is ready to make the move from sci-fi concept to real-world convenience with the first commercial flights now expected to begin in 2028.
