Originally Posted by
blue2002
1) The max range is NOT 200km. 200km is the max range for "all electric". Max range in hybrid mode with 30 pax is 400km. It goes up to 800km with 25 pax.
https://heartaerospace.com/es-30/ .
2) By the time this plane goes into service (2028 at earliest, right?), batteries will have evolved, and they will continue to evolve. Actually, even the manufacturer refers to this in the 2nd section of
https://heartaerospace.com/es-30/ .
3) These are early days of aerospace electrification. Remember how ten years ago folks would look with incredulity at anyone buying an EV? 10 years from now airlines will be clamouring to get into a queue for all-electric airframes. And these airframes will get bigger. Right now we are talking about a 30-pax puddle jumper. 10 years or less from now we will be talking about the electrical equivalents of A220. It is a wise move for Air Canada to get in on this trend and enter the learning curve early on.
The interesting question (not addressed on the manufacturer's site) is what will be the fastest re-charge time.
The max range isn't anything yet.
All the pretty pictures that accompany the press releases are "artist's renderings". That AC and Saab have pitched in a measly $5 mil each should tell us how serious they are about this.
The electrical equivalent of A220 in 10 years? It's not that simple, and scaling up in size will not automatically translate into scaling up the range to the 6,000km the A220 does now. The Tesla semi has around a 600-mile range, empty. That's only a 50% improvement, roughly, over the Model S. So if this mythical electric airplane could do Calgary to Red Deer in 2028, the even more mythical unicorn ES-220 might go as far as Edmonton, maybe. Wow!!!
And the 200km range, from their press release, is based on "late 2020s" technology. And will double 10 years from then? Anything is possible, I suppose.
Air Canada just trying to get ahead of the curve on this ESG nonsense. What a load of BS.