Eviation’s Alice is an all-electric, nine-person aircraft
These cost reductions are a big deal and they are largely based on energy cost reductions. It offsets some of the inconveniences of not so long range, lack of infrastructure for charging, and having to wait for recharging.<p>For reference, typical business jets or twin props burn hundreds of gallons of fuel on a single trip costing hundreds of dollars. They also need frequent maintenance as there are a lot of things that need to be checked and fixed with such planes. So, the proposition of charging with cheap electricity and getting rid of most of the stuff that needs fixing and maintaining on a regular basis is highly attractive. If it works as advertised, this plane will sell like crazy. Electrical engines basically last a very long time and are easy to check and service. Charging batteries is comparatively cheap to burning fuel and likely to get cheaper in the future.<p>Practically speaking, if you have a home base with charging infrastructure but most other airports do not (yet), effectively you are looking at a 300M range for a return trip unless you are flying to a place with infrastructure to charge. That&#x27;s still fairly nice.<p>For commercial operations, there are plenty of use-cases that would be well served by a plane like this. A plane like this gets passenger cost down to something that is quite competitive with a train ticket.