These two traffic light politicians are to blame

The German model start-up for air taxis Lilium from Bavaria is having serious financial problems. Because the federal government will not support the company. As the CDU/CSU parliamentary group confirmed to the Berliner Zeitung on Friday, the budget committee has decided against a guarantee of 50 million euros. The responsible rapporteur Florian Oßner, Union chairman in the budget committee, regrets this. “I have had countless conversations with the Ministry of Transport and Wissing. We agreed that the 50 million guarantee for Lilium makes sense as a future project.” Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had massively supported the funding.

But in the end that didn’t help; there was even resistance from the liberal ranks. “Frank Schäffler (FDP) and Paula Piechotta (Greens) stand in the way and thus prevent the traffic light approval – seriously to the detriment of Germany as an investment location,” said Oßner. The committee will be a federal government guarantee for the start-up, which was founded in 2015 and is no longer on the agenda. What does this mean for the once lauded air mobility company?

Over 100 million euros are at stake

The failed federal guarantee is a defeat for Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP). He had advertised for a federal loan guarantee on Monday. The state of Bavaria will also provide 50 million for the pioneering start-up based in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. Whether she will do the same now that the cancellation from Berlin is known remains to be seen. Hubert Aiwanger’s (Free Voters) State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy did not manage to answer the Berliner Zeitung’s query by the editorial deadline.

The fact is that Lilium is waiting for private money, which will only be paid out if government money also flows. And Lilium urgently needs fresh money. So far the company has not made a profit. Lilium was already considering moving abroad. The air taxi builders have always defended the demanded state support. “All of our international competitors have long since received funding – grants and not loans,” a company spokesman told Spiegel this week.

Subsidies are also the rule in the industry. “There is no successful aircraft program in the aviation industry without government aid.” Wissing sees “great potential in this form of air mobility,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport. The minister is in favor of dealing with air taxis “with a willingness to act”. The budget committee apparently did not initially follow this request.

Do flying taxis help the energy transition?

By the way, no one has ever flown in air taxis. Lilium will begin commercial operations on the Côte d’Azur in 2026. The flying objects are intended to relieve road traffic and shorten transport times on short routes. The start-up promises a range of 250 kilometers per hour and a top speed of 280. They are also supposed to reduce pollutant emissions in traffic, with lithium-ion batteries, of course.

They have dominated the market since they were first used in 1995. Batteries are a central part of the energy transition. Whether in smartphones, e-scooters, laptops or in e-cars. Nickel, manganese or cobalt are used to make these batteries. All of these metals are mined at great expense in the world’s mines and then, in 90 percent of cases, shipped to China and processed there. They are delivered to Germany, among other places, as finished batteries. The energy transition will require more and, above all, better energy storage in the future.

The question remains, are flying taxis actually a sustainable solution to traffic congestion? A study by the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim doubts exactly that. Air taxis would hardly shorten travel times and carbon dioxide emissions would increase compared to electric cars. After all, because of their high costs, they are more for the wealthy.

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