This is an electric
powered plane. It’s one of many being
unveiled this year. So is the aviation industry
becoming more sustainable and when will the world’s jet-setters
actually start flying electric? This is the world’s first commercial
all-electric passenger aircraft. It’s a prototype, but the aircraft’s
creator, Israeli company Eviation, says it’s expected to
enter service in 2022. This is the Eviation Alice. The unique selling proposition of this plane,
besides the many benefits of it being a very sustainable aircraft with zero emissions,
is actually that it makes economic sense. This plane will cost $200
of flight hour to operate, a fraction of what a similarly sized and similar
performance aircraft would cost to operate and really this is the business case and this
is the reason we started the company. The fuel bill for the global airline industry last
year was estimated to have totaled $180 billion. In 2019, the fuel bill is forecast to rise to $206 billion,
accounting for 25% of airlines’ operating expenses. The impact of fuel prices on
airlines’ revenues is clear. Since 2010, the rise and fall in the price
of fuel has had a direct correlation with airlines increasing and
decreasing profit margins. So, this is inside The Alice. Careful not to bump your head, it’s
pretty small in here, pretty tight. I can just about get into the seat,
but the windows are massive. It’s like something out of the future. But while it may look futuristic, The Alice
isn’t the first electrically powered plane to take to the skies or even the
most environmentally friendly. Back in 2016, The Solar Impulse 2
was the first solar-powered aircraft to travel all the way around the
globe without a drop of fuel. But while that was a single pilot, endurance
flight, The Alice, which can fly 650 miles on a single charge at 250 knots, was
designed for the everyday traveler. That means you could get all the way from
Paris to Barcelona without stopping to charge up. Is that this plane’s long term purpose, to
be a regional commuting plane? We see this plane as one of the first
opportunities to create a competitive ticket price for flying the distances
that you would normally drive. U.S. regional carrier Cape Air has already
put in a double digit order for the Alice plane. And British low-cost airline EasyJet is working
with American startup Wright Electric. EasyJet says it will start
using its electric aircraft, which fly distances of less than 300
miles, in its regular services by 2027. The drive behind it, is it cost cutting,
is it the environment, or is it both? The drive behind it is
clearly the environment. We have to do
something different. I wouldn’t say cost-cutting. I would say we need to consider, you know,
our strength as an airline is value for money. There’s a tremendous demand for lower emissions
aviation among consumers and also among airlines. Lower fuel consumption means lower costs as well,
that’s one of the nice things about this space. The environmentalists and technology
people are very aligned because everybody wants
to lower fuel consumption. But what about airlines that
need to fly longer distances? Around 80% of aviation CO2 emissions are emitted from
flights traveling over 1,500 kilometers, about 930 miles. As of yet, there is no practical
alternative mode of transport. The global aviation industry produces around 2%
of all human-induced carbon dioxide emissions and 12% of transport-
related CO2 emissions. The industry has volunteered to cap its overall
emissions by 2020, and halve emissions by 2050. One report found Easyjet is currently the major airline
with the lowest carbon emissions per passenger. By 2020, EasyJet's aircraft are expected to be emitting
75 grams of CO2 per passenger kilometer, less than half of
Korean Air’s emissions. But there are still a number of challenges
for shorter distances too. For example, capacity. Alice holds just nine passengers
and two crew members. Whereas popular planes used for short-haul flights,
such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737, can easily seat more than 100 passengers
and cover over a thousand miles. The benefits of electric planes go beyond
a reduction in fuel emissions. These students from Delft University in
the Netherlands are taking part in GoFly, a $2 million competition to create the
world’s first personal flying device. Their team Silverwing’s machine is electrically
powered, something they chose over a traditional jet propulsion engine
for a number of reasons. It’s fully electric powered so we
have an electric drivetrain. We could have easily powered
it by a traditional motor, but we really don’t want to be the trend
followers, we want to be the disruptors. So with an electric motor, you
can just spool up very fast. There is no lag between
the performance control. There is less vibration because
you don’t have an IC engine in it. There is also lower noise
which is a crucial aspect. In aerospace, we focus on sustainability
quite a bit and efficiency quite a bit and it’s something more and more students
are worried about and focusing on. There are some hurdles to overcome but in the distant
future we are definitely thinking of electrifying aviation. These students and many others
have put a lot of time and effort into developing a single personal
flying machine prototype. But commercial aircraft is a much larger
undertaking, so who’s ultimately funding it? So the development costs won’t impact the
passengers who buy tickets to go on the plane? Bringing a new plane to
market is a gargantuan task. The cost of this development
has been significant but direct operating costs is
the main driver of ticket prices. Energy and maintenance is really what you
pay for, and the fact this plane is electric really hits those two
nails on the head. Our goal is to have lower costs because fuel
is such an expensive part of an airline. If we can lower the fuel costs of being in
an airplane, it’s better for the environment because that’s less carbon in the air
and it’s lower costs for consumers. So when will we see electric
aircraft up in the air? In our lifetimes we’ll actually have the chance
to see all aviation potentially be electric. We hope to have our airplane on the market,
entry into service in the next decade or so. This could be certified in today’s regulatory
environment, we don’t need any rule changes but it will take time and I expect no-one will be
able to buy a ticket for this before sometime 2022. I’ve come from a time when
electric aircraft was impossible, to an idea but now we’ve turned that corner
where everyone's saying this is going to, has to happen and it’s
just a question of when. Electric planes have been talked about as a
possibility for many years, but seeing them on the tarmac and even up in the air, shows
that this could be a practical solution to the economic and environmental
challenges that the industry is facing. Hi guys, thanks for
watching our video. If you want to see more of our
content then check out these videos. And we'd love to know your thoughts of
electric planes, would you get in one? Are you excited about it? Comment below the video to let us
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