Eve Air Mobility and Hunch Mobility, a joint venture between Hunch Ventures and Blade Air Mobility, plan to introduce electric commuter flights to Bangalore, India by working with local, state and federal officials, infrastructure, energy and technology providers to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place.

"This launch city announcement is the next step in a great relationship that Hunch Mobility and Eve have built to co-create the urban air mobility ecosystem in India," says Eve CEO Johann Bordais. "India is an incredibly important market for urban air mobility, and our goal is to work with Hunch to provide residents with an additional efficient and affordable mode of transportation to ease commuting times in one of the most heavily populated cities in the world."

"This collaboration underscores the commitment to contribute to India's growth story by addressing the bottleneck of road congestion in the country. We look forward to introducing eVTOL flights that will democratise short haul air mobility by offering affordable ticket fares and zero carbon emission," adds Hunch Mobility director Amit Dutta.

Home to more than 13 million people Bangalore, in the Karnataka state of India, is one of the most populated cities in the world. The emergence of electric aviation with eVTOL vehicles is expected to significantly reduce the carbon footprint, noise and cost of flying, making it more accessible to the masses.

Eve's eVTOL will offer Hunch customers a quick and economical way to avoid traffic congestion in this dense urban environment. The aircraft is all-electric, has a range of 60 miles and features a lift and cruise configuration, with dedicated rotors for vertical flight and fixed wings to fly on cruise. It will be piloted at launch but evolve towards uncrewed operations in the future.

Hunch Mobility originally agreed to purchase 200 aircraft, services and the Urban air traffic management solution from Eve back in September 2022. The two companies then embarked on a three month pilot project, conducting intra-city helicopter flights in Bangalore in order to collect data on operations and customer experiences. This data, in turn, is informing the further development of Eve's products.

The two companies note eVTOL flight should also have a positive economic impact on the Bangalore community in terms of employment opportunities; positions ranging from pilots and aircraft service technicians to training and technical services are among the numerous roles that will be needed. The development of the necessary infrastructure to support eVTOL operations is also expected to contribute value and employment opportunities.

India will also gain all-electric air services through travel conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises and Archer Aviation, who separately plan to operate up to 200 of Archer’s aircraft, finance and build vertiport infrastructure, and train pilots and other personnel.