Electric aircraft startup Vaeridion snatches important specialised building from Lilium

As reported by the German business publication Wirtschaftswoche, the building in question was leased to Vaeridion a few days ago. Vaeridion has also already received confirmation from Lilium’s insolvency administrator that it can purchase the technology belonging to the building, including laser welding equipment, founder and CEO Ivor van Dartel told the magazine.

Vaeridion is a start-up company that, unlike Lilium, does not want to build an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), but rather an electric aircraft that uses a conventional runway like a normal aeroplane. It will take off as a nine-seater plus space for two pilots. Vaeridion estimates the nominal range at 400 kilometres plus emergency reserve. Last December, Vaeridion raised €14 million from investors for this purpose.

The former Lilium building is exciting for Vaeridion because it contains another fireproof room, according to Wirtschaftswoche (WiWo) magazine. This is considered an important prerequisite for setting up battery production. The battery facility and halls for acoustic testing, for example, were once built by Oberpfaffenhofen Airport specifically for Lilium. Now, the leasing of facilities is to become a new business area for Lilium – customers in the field of electric mobility could use them primarily for testing purposes. Lilium calls this ‘testing-as-a-service’.

However, the deal with Vaeridion raises new questions as to whether the planned takeover of Lilium by AAMG will actually take place. After all, the building and the facilities it houses have been part of Lilium’s strategy to date and were important for the development and construction of the air taxi. According to the report, it would probably take around a year to set up a comparable facility. In addition, most of the employees have already left the company. According to the German business publication WiWo, Vaeridion alone has hired eleven former Lilium engineers and intends to hire more.

In addition, insolvency administrator Ivo-Meinert Willrodt from the Pluta law firm apparently continues to have doubts about AAMG, which is a blank slate in the industry and whose CEO, Robert Kamp, said: “I have no experience in aviation, but I know how to do business.” Despite a public declaration of intent at the beginning of August and plenty of media coverage for the AAMG-Lilium deal since then, the insolvency administrator has still not approved the transaction. He apparently wants to prevent a disaster like the first insolvency of Lilium, where the takeover by an investor consortium called ‘Mobile Uplift Corporation’ ultimately failed and ended in a second insolvency.

AAMG has already announced that it intends to drive forward research and development in Bavaria with a reduced workforce of around 300 employees and also plans to produce the first 50 air taxis there. However, series production is then to be relocated to Japan, where demand is expected to be greater than in Europe. In addition, AAMG’s largest shareholder, AirMobility, is based in Japan.

wiwo.de (in German)

This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.