Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) airlines appear to be a dozen. Many people have the perfect outlandish design for the electric air taxi of the future – or so they say. While most of these startups never come out of the basement, there are some that we’ve been keeping a close eye on for years, and one of them is Lilium. That doesn’t mean it will work. Achieving commercial production and profitability is about as difficult as carrying a redwood tree on your back (not recommended for several reasons). But we still dream of a possible flight on a Lilium jet.
good design imo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2019
Lily × Zenlabs
The latest from Lilium is that it has chosen a battery cell supplier, which happens to be a battery startup it invested in last year. (“As an investor in Zenlabs since 2021, Lilium has the exclusive rights to use the battery cell technology in commercial regional eVTOL applications,” the company notes.) On the one hand, it’s good to see that it still has confidence in the batteries. On the other hand, the role of conflicts of interest or over-investment must also be taken into account power have in such cases. It’s an opportunity to keep an eye on. However, Lilium has not just announced that it will use battery cells from Zen labs, the battery startup mentioned above. The visionaries of eVTOL aircraft also explained quite long and in detail Why they love the Zenlabs cells.
Image courtesy of Lilium.
“The Lilium team is testing cells against our mission profile at our headquarters near Munich.” Image courtesy of Lilium.
A few interesting lines that caught my eye from Lilium’s article about the news are these:
“While we’ve made tremendous strides in cell performance and industrialization over the past 15 years, from electric cars to consumer electronics, designing cells for the unique needs of the aerospace industry has likely not been a priority.
“Until now.
“Lilium has worked hard to develop a high-performance aviation battery system for our jets, targeting the two key drivers needed to achieve our mission: performance and scale, while working towards anticipated certification requirements. Now that Lilium has progressed in filing patents to protect IP and independent third-party testing of the target cell technology is complete, we can tell you more about our plans in this area.”
It’s true – as great as batteries for electric cars and trucks have become, who designs batteries for the aerospace industry? To fulfill the need, one has to focus on it.
Lilium eVTOL jet (render). Image courtesy of Lilium.
As for Zenlabs, it wasn’t a shot in the dark either. “Our team has scouted more than 100 companies across the battery value chain, from raw material suppliers to cell developers, manufacturers and recyclers,” said Lilium. “Based on that research, we concluded that Zenlabs’ pocket cells, lithium-ion batteries that use a high-silicon anode and a high-nickel cathode, provided the best solution to meet our needs through performance, certification and large-scale production.”
Furthermore, the company says that Lilium engineers have been working with Zenlabs engineers for two years. Taking the next step now means that those two years have been fruitful.
Let’s go through some of the charts that Lilium has published along with this news.
Lilium/Zenlabs Battery Cell Statistics
“Figure 1 compares a commercially available state-of-the-art high-power cell (black), a commercially available state-of-the-art high-energy cell (red) and the Zenlabs cell (green).
“You can see that the advantage of the Zenlabs cell is the combination of both superior specific energy and specific power capabilities. With this comparison, the Zenlabs cell exceeds both the specific power of the high power cell and the specific energy power of the high energy cell.”
In short, the Zenlabs batteries can deliver high power for quite some time without quickly draining the energy stored in them. That’s what planes need.
While I’ve always thought the Lilium design looked pretty cool and attractive, one thing I’ve learned over the years is that what makes an EV are its batteries. Yes, the design is huge and crucial, but so are batteries. What I never really thought about was that the aviation industry should develop its own batteries that are tailored to its own specific needs.
There’s more in the Lilium article about the specific needs Lilium identified and how Zenlabs is addressing them, but let’s jump to another critical issue: battery manufacturing.
Lilium Battery Mineral Supply & Production
Back for a while, on May 27, Lilium announced which partnered with Livent to further develop the R&D of high-performance batteries suitable for electric aviation. Livent is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lithium battery products. That collaboration alone is a big step towards production, even if the news wasn’t specifically about that.
“The partnership with Livent, a pioneer of lithium technology innovation and a global leader in lithium manufacturing for nearly eighty years, is an important step towards Lilium’s future access to the high-performance battery cell technology that will power Lilium’s jets.” Indeed. “Livent supplies lithium to many of the world’s leading electric vehicle brands and battery manufacturers. As a fully integrated lithium producer, Livent uses its differentiated technology processes to both source raw lithium and produce a range of specialty lithium products in an environmentally friendly, safe and sustainable manner.”
Livent wouldn’t mess with an eVTOL company that it didn’t think was ultimately on its way to commercial viability, or at least had a solid chance at it.
Marina Yakovleva, Director of Research & Development and New Business Development for Livent said: “The Livent R&D team is excited about the opportunity to work closely with Lilium’s leading scientists and engineers to bring the state of the art in e -promoting mobility and battery technology.Innovation is in the DNA of both companies, as is a shared commitment to advancing electric transportation and sustainable solutions.Together, we hope to make meaningful progress in realizing the potential of the next generation battery technologies and decarbonising air travel.”
Lilium Jet concept. Image courtesy of Lilium.
Lilium Jet concept. Image courtesy of Lilium.
Lilium Jet concept. Image courtesy of Lilium.
The second part of Lilium’s slightly more recent press release on the Zenlabs battery development focused on manufacturing and a new manufacturing partner, CUSTOMCELLS. “CUSTOMCELLS is one of the world’s leading companies in manufacturing highly specialized lithium-ion battery cells for highly regulated industries,” writes Lilium. “They have already shown that they can build highly reliable batteries on a large scale with all kinds of unique capacity sets for a variety of battery-powered applications, from sports cars to the marine industry and even medical devices.” That doesn’t mean they’re going to break records for the production of cheap lithium-ion batteries. However, it highlights an important point and once again demonstrates the keen foresight of the Lilium exec team: the aircraft industry is one of the most regulated industries in the world and you need manufacturing partners who are used to working in highly regulated environments.
Lilium Jet concept. Image courtesy of Lilium.
Of course, cost is also critical, and I’m sure the two partners will work together to cut costs as much as possible, as they’ll both achieve orders of magnitude greater success if Lilium can compete in the cutthroat and well-guarded aviation industry. “We will never be able to achieve our mission and contribute effectively to the decarbonisation of air mobility if our batteries cannot be built in very large quantities, with aerospace quality and at a sustainable price,” says Lilium soberly.
Production of battery cells started in February 2022.
Lilium’s goal is to have an eVTOL aircraft that can fly ~250 km (155 miles). When will this Lilium Jet be launched? We will see. The Munich-based company aims to achieve this in Germany, the United States and Brazil by 2024. The company currently employs more than 750 people, including 400 aerospace engineers.
Lilium Jet concept. Image courtesy of Lilium.
Do you appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality and cleantech news coverage? Consider becoming one CleanTechnica member, supporter, technician or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon†
