LE BOURGET—Embraer is to become a player in electric propulsion through a new joint venture with Japan's Nidec Corporation, one of the world's largest electric-motor manufacturers.
Embraer's Eve Air Mobility electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) advanced air mobility aircraft will be the launch customer for the electric motors that emerge from the JV—named Nidec Aerospace—owned 51% by Nidec and 49% by Embraer, the two companies announced June 18 on the eve of the Paris Air Show.
However, the new company's ambition is to be agnostic in the supply of motors to the world's eVTOL manufacturers. Nidec Aerospace is eying a slice of what the company believes will be a trillion-dollar industry by 2040, as the use of electric aviation grows into regional and cargo services. The JV could also produce the envisaged 1-megawatt motors that Embraer expects to see to power its Energia hybrid-electric turboprop in the 2030s.
Kyoto, Japan-based Nidec produces the tiny single-digit wattage motor in our smartphones to megawatt industrial motors, but the JV with Embraer represents its first push into aerospace.
Michael Briggs, president of Nidec's motion and energy business, said the partnership with Embraer was a natural fit given the Brazilian OEM's experience in airworthiness certification and motor controller technology.
“Our goal here is to develop, manufacture and sell electric propulsion systems,” Briggs said. “We knew this wasn't going to be easy, especially when you look at it from a Nidec perspective with regards to the certification process."
Embraer, Briggs said, can help Nidec deliver those certifications globally “for the lowest cost possible and make sure that we integrate the entire value chain.”
Embraer President and CEO Francisco Gomes Neto said the JV would design, certify and mass produce motors to power “more efficient and greener aircraft models.”
“You can count on us to generate a lot of business opportunities driven by innovation and focused on a sustainable future,” he told his Nidec counterparts at the launch event at Le Bourget.
Nidec is already finalizing development of the motors for the Eve, including the eight 70-kW lift motor and the dual 120-kW pusher motor.
Nidec's research and development efforts for aerospace motors are currently focused around reducing their weight and using new materials—including titanium end-shields—and new approaches to lamination.
The partnership with Embraer has emerged from Nidec's two-year-long efforts to find a way into aerospace, the connection emerging after Nidec's takeover of Brazil's Embraco business which builds motors for domestic refrigerators. “It was very clear that the partnership between Embraer, and the relationship and chemistry [with Nidec] was really good and that's something that takes time to develop,” Greg Gorman, Nidec's chief growth officer, said.
At the same time as announcing the JV, Eve also revealed that BAE Systems will provide the batteries for the eVTOL, and France's DUC Hélice Propellers will provide the rotors and propellors for the platform. The company says it plans to name additional suppliers for the platform shortly including those for flight-control systems, avionics, airframe and power-management systems. Assembly of the first Eve prototype is to begin during the second half of 2023 with a flight test campaign to follow in 2024. The company hopes to achieve certification and then begin deliveries in 2026.