China’s Wanfeng acquires Volocopter assets
Zhejiang Wanfeng Auto Wheel Co., Ltd. (Wanfeng) has officially confirmed plans to acquire Germany-based Volocopter. Wanfeng, through its 55%-owned subsidiary Wanfeng Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. (Wanfeng Aviation), is a professional general aircraft manufacturer integrating independent R&D and design, advanced manufacturing, sales and services.
Established in 2007, Volocopter GmbH focuses on eVTOL development, aiming to provide innovative solutions for urban air mobility (UAM). It is a pioneer in sustainable urban air mobility, primarily engaged in the development, testing, manufacturing, maintenance and sale of electric multi-rotor aircraft, as well as air taxi operation solutions.
Volocopter GmbH’s innovative aircraft designs aim to meet the strictest aviation standards of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and have obtained Design Organization Approval (DOA) and Production Organization Approval (POA). The relevant aircraft models are currently in the type certification (TC) phase.
The transaction target includes related tangible assets (equipment, tools, and other fixed assets, inventory, semi-finished products, etc.), intellectual property rights (patents for aircraft and drone systems, trademarks such as Volodrone, Volocopter, and Volocity and domain names such as airtaxi-volocopter.com and volocopter-group.com) and the assumption of specific contract rights and obligations.
The price of the transaction is € 10 million. The funds for this acquisition will come entirely from Wanfeng’s own or self-raised funds, says the company.
Through this acquisition of related tangible assets and intellectual property rights under the name of Volocopter GmbH, Wanfeng aims to accelerate the global development and application of the low-altitude field, develop advanced eVTOL products and create a new growth engine for the company.
Cover photo: Volocopter
