With a wide range of new sustainable transport sectors – how do they all fit together as a new transport eco-system?
We are at the start of a transport revolution. In the aftermath of COVID, attention has turned to the sustainability crisis, and we need to rapidly develop and adopt new transport technologies to turn the tide on global warming, which as we’re already seeing from the wild fires, flash floods and draughts, may already be having an irreversible effect. Sustainability does not have to take the form of compromise however, particularly in transport. There are many opportunities to create highly profitable, high performance (and fun) modes of transport.
On top of the move towards electrification for cars and commercial vehicles and the investment in hydrogen power in commercial aerospace, new modes of transport are being developed and deployed at rates not seen in transportation since the mass proliferation of aircraft and cars in the early 1900s. They can be categorised by the length of journey and the purpose of the journey that they are aimed at, shown in the diagram below. These new modes of transport take advantage of improving electrification technologies, and aim at both creating cleaner transport and reducing congestion by reducing the number of vehicles required on the road, showing that there is not a need for a trade-off between convenience and sustainability.
For inner city travel, in many cases one person travels in a car for a short journey. Through the use of micro-mobility solutions such as e-scooters and e-bikes, the number of these car journeys can be reduced (according to a recent study by Voi technologies, up to 31% of journeys made using their scooters have replaced car journeys in the UK [1]). This reduces both the emissions levels in cities and also the space taken up by cars, reducing congestion and improving traffic flow, further reducing emissions.
For travel between cities or across large cities, generally the choices are car, bus or train. A third, more rapid and potentially more convenient option that is emerging is that of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), a term used to describe the electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft being developed by companies such as Vertical Aerospace and Lillium amongst others that promises to drastically cut travel times with inherently green flights between “vertiports”. With entry into service dates generally quoted as around the mid to late 2020s, there are multiple challenges ahead, including air traffic management, infrastructure, certification, production ramp up rates, battery technology, pilot training and noise. These challenges are starting to be met. Certification bodies are starting to release new standards directed specifically at EVTOL aircraft (such as EASA’s SC-VTOL), autonomous air traffic management systems are being developed, primarily for drones and UAVs but will be equally applicable to UAM, infrastructure is being developed (such as the Urban AirPort Vertiport), noise is being designed out of the aircraft as demonstrated recently by Joby [2], and production ramp up rates can be solved through the use of digital technology, such as that of Airborne.
With the level of investment going into this sub-sector, even if the aircraft themselves do not make the current level of hype a reality, the technology being developed will be of great use in other sectors. Examples of this strategy can be seen with the Segway / Voi partnership, wherein the Segway itself was ultimately a failure but the technology is being used to power other vehicles. Reaction Engines are another example, wherein the heat exchanger technology being developed for the SABRE is being commercialised as a standalone technology to create revenue earlier. The efforts going into electric propulsion systems and battery technology for UAM will be of great use for regional air mobility (RAM) and other electric transport.
Alongside these passenger vehicles, the logistics sector is also seeing significant developments. The traditional depot model wherein large trucks bring goods and parcels cross country which are then delivered by vans going around cities may soon be adjusted to incorporate last mile delivery solutions such as the vehicles designed by EAV in the UK, and perhaps slightly further into the future, large drones such as the Volodrone. These last mile delivery vehicles are based on e-cargo bikes and follow similar principles to the e-scooters. Delivery firms generally do not need the full payload of a diesel van for most delivery routes, so instead of bringing large vans into cities, smaller electric vehicles based on e-cargo bikes can be used which reduces the environmental impact of deliveries whilst also reducing costs to the companies since less fuel is burned, and the insurance and maintenance costs are lowered.
With longer distances, the general aviation market is starting to grow again. For longer distance travel, such as between Bristol and Newcastle in the UK, many opt to fly due to the reduced time compared to taking the train or driving. These routes are generally flown by narrow body jets such at the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 due to these aircraft being the standardised choice. These aircraft are not optimised for these short distances and thereby create significant emissions. On top of this, passengers need to travel to larger airports that have the capacity to service these aircraft, increasing overall travel time and reducing convenience. Emerging aerospace entrepreneurs, such as Faradair and Electron Aerospace have realised that there are a multitude of smaller airfields around the world. With many of these left over from the second world war, they would have runway lengths suitable for smaller aircraft. Since the aircraft are smaller, electric propulsion becomes more viable. The vision is to be able to travel to one of these conveniently located airfields, get on a pre-booked aircraft without long queues through international airports and land at a similarly convenient airfield at the other end. Compared to the UAM market, Regional Air Mobility (RAM) has far lower barriers to entry. By and large, the infrastructure is already there (but requiring modernisation), the technology is more mature and the energy requirements from batteries for a CTOL aircraft are far lower than that of a vertical take-off aircraft.
These new vehicles represent an exciting, more sustainable future of mobility. The previous divisions between modes of transport (such as aerospace vs. automotive) are blurring and the manufacturing approaches for the two need to be combined to service these new markets. Aside from the challenges listed above, the key task now is to develop more sustainable supply chains and manufacturing solutions to match demand and enable the reduction in emissions as rapidly as possible. To do this, the next generation of supply chains will look drastically different from today; a topic that will be explored in future articles.
[1] How Voi contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 13: Climate Action – (voiscooters.com)
[2] How Quiet is the Joby Aircraft during Flyover? – YouTube
