Tecnam suspend electric flight projects due to battery limitations

[Hillhater]

A pioneering electric plane developer has shelved development of its new craft after discovering that its batteries will only last a few hundred flights before they need to be replaced.

Tecnam said its main challenge was the energy density of the batteries available today, which are relatively too heavy for the amount of power they can store.

The speed at which the batteries would lose charge would erode the nine-passenger craft’s value, ruining its commercial prospects, it added.

Tecnam to postpone the P-VOLT Programme - Tecnam Aircraft

After three years of intensive studies covering the entire lifecycle of an all-electric aircraft, Tecnam has concluded that the time for P-Volt is not yet ripe, although research activities will continue to explore new emerging technologies. Since the beginning of the P-Volt development...

tecnam.com

 

[From-A-To-B]

A pioneering electric plane developer has shelved development of its new craft after discovering that its batteries will only last a few hundred flights before they need to be replaced.

Tecnam said its main challenge was the energy density of the batteries available today, which are relatively too heavy for the amount of power they can store.

The speed at which the batteries would lose charge would erode the nine-passenger craft’s value, ruining its commercial prospects, it added.

I find it hard to believe that an electric aviation company took three years to figure out that battery performance degrades with cycles, and degrades even faster if you aren’t going to baby the battery. An early Nissan Leaf driver with an English degree could have told you that. Those figurings could have happened as napkin math. I wonder what else contributed to their decision to close their doors.

 

[Hillhater]

Yes, isnt hindsight great !
Maybe someone should tell those other dozens of companies also developing electric flight platforms that they are wasting their time and efforts by failing to do those napkin math calcs ?….
…or perhaps they are happy to keep burning development grants and investors money until reality bites and funding drys up.?
But i suspect that most are hoping and gambling on that long spruked big battery “breakthrough” of 2-5x energy density ?