Electric air taxi (eVTOL)
Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft built to carry passengers over short distances, which insurers must price with no loss history, from components, analogies and test data.
An electric air taxi, or eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing), is an electric aircraft that takes off and lands vertically to carry passengers over short distances. On October 13, 2023, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued EHang's EH216-S, a two-seater with no pilot on board, the world's first type certificate for an eVTOL. On March 30, 2025, two operators in Guangzhou and Hefei received their operator certificates and could sell tickets for sightseeing flights. In the United States, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) published on October 22, 2024 its special rule on powered-lift, for ten years. It covers pilot training and operations, without settling type certification, still under way at US manufacturers. Joby, partnered with Uber since February 25, 2026, had set 2026 for its first paying passengers in Dubai. No date for a first commercial flight there had been publicly confirmed by fall 2026. For insurers the problem is short: there are no claims. The underwriter has no frequency and no average cost. It builds the price by analogy: the helicopter for operations, the drone for autonomy, the car battery for fire, the certification file for the rest. Thermal runaway in a battery pack is the scenario that comes up in every conversation, in flight and on the ground while charging. With no pilot on board, liability shifts from the operator to the designer of the flight software, and so into product liability. Then there is counterparty risk: Volocopter declared insolvency on December 26, 2024. Its assets were bought in March 2025 by Wanfeng, the owner of Diamond Aircraft, for €10 million, about $11 million. The hull insurer is covering an aircraft whose manufacturer may vanish before delivering spare parts.
An operator in Hefei flies an EH216-S over a park for tourists, by day and in good weather. Its insurer has no statistics of its own for the type: it prices passenger and third-party liability on the manufacturer's declared test data and the narrow scope of the operator certificate, and reprices at each extension.
eVTOL, air taxi, powered-lift, urban air mobility
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