“…YASA spinoff Evolito has seen a wide range of interest from eVTOL manufacturers in its axial flux motor technology, senior executives told eVTOL.com, with the United Kingdom-based company viewing the advanced air mobility market as a key target for future growth.

YASA was founded in 2009 and is primarily focused on developing motors for automotive use. The company was acquired by Mercedes-Benz earlier this year. Evolito was previously spun out by YASA to speed electrification in the aerospace market with high performance, low weight electric motors.

The aim is to further develop YASA’s products for the aerospace sector, exploiting its axial flux technology and power-to-weight ratio advantage to fast track the development of eVTOL aircraft and other elements of urban air mobility (UAM).

According to Evolito, axial flux technology offers a range of benefits over radial electric motor technology, including higher power and torque densities, with the latter referring to “how much torque you can get per kilogram of machine mass,” explained Tim Woolmer, founder and chief technology officer of YASA and now an adviser for Evolito. YASA’s segmented topology — the company’s name stands for Yokeless and Segmented Armature — also gives it advantages over other types of axial flux motors, the company stated, with its cooling systems and other elements making the systems more robust.

The eVTOL market is a key target for Evolito, said managing director Gareth Morris. While there is a focus on electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft in regional air mobility, both of which could one day utilize axial flux electric motors, the range of work underway in UAM and the relative ease of developing such technology for smaller aircraft makes it a far more immediately addressable market…”