Chinese electric vehicle battery maker CATL has injected “several hundreds of millions” of US dollars into electrical aerial vehicle maker AutoFlight.
Alongside the strategic investment, the two will jointly dedicate resources for the R&D of batteries used in electric aviation, according to a company release on Sunday.
“By combining their respective resources and technical expertise, the two companies will focus on enhancing the energy density and performance of eVTOL batteries, aiming to support longer flight distances and higher load capacities, while also achieving significant improvements in safety and stability,” AutoFlight said.
Founded in 2017, AutoFlight is one of the early movers in the area of eVTOL in China. Besides a manufacturing plant in the city of Jining in China’s southwestern Shandong province, the firm also has its R&D headquarters in Germany as well as an operation & test centre in the US.
The firm raised $100 million in a Series A funding round in September 2021.
The investment comes at a time when the country ramps up its push off the so-called “low-altitude economy”, which refers to the range of manned and unmanned aviation activities that take place in the vertical airspace extending from 1,000 to 6,000 meters above the ground.
Recently, Geely-backed flying car maker Aerofugia sealed its Series B round on July 29, roping in the likes of Orinno Capital, Tsinghua Holdings Capital (TH Capital), and CAS Star, among others.
Shanghai-based eVTOL aircraft developer Volant Aerotech too, sealed another nine-digit funding round in June bringing its total fundraising this year to at least 300 million yuan ($41.4 million).
