SkyDrive Enters India

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan’s leading “flying car” (eVTOL) development company SkyDrive is highlighting its strategic move into India, which it has long viewed as market full of potential for its innovative aerial vehicle. SkyDrive’s alliance with Suzuki Motor Corporation, which has an established presence in the South Asian giant, has only enhanced these ambitions.

One announcement concerns the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the western Indian state of Gujarat. The precise content of the agreement is vague, but is said to involve efforts to “explore the settings of the ecosystem that is required for social implementation of our eVTOL aircrafts within the States of Gujarat by 2027.”

The agreement was signed in person by SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa and Gujarat’s Department of Science & Technology Mission Director Videh Khara.

Fukuzawa stated that “SkyDrive and Suzuki have been collaborating in business development of eVTOL in India and developed suitability use cases. We are delighted to enter into the partnership with the most innovative state in India, Gujarat, also the hometown of the prime minister of India, to embark on the journey together. We would like to work closely together as the public and private sectors to provide solutions for the social issues such as mobility emissions and urban congestion.”

This was not, however, SkyDrive’s only recent move in the subcontinent.

The company also signed a memorandum of understanding a couple of weeks ago with Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Foundation, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (TiHAN) to collaborate on unmanned drone technology to expand the drone market in India.

By this agreement, SkyDrive will collaborate with TiHAN, India’s first autonomous navigation testbed facility, on development related to heavy-lift drones, another business field in which the Japanese company has been operating.

Following up on this announcement, SkyDrive signed a separate agreement with Hyderabad-based engineering firm Cyient.

On this occasion, Fukuzawa stated that he was “pleased to sign the partnership with Cyient to jointly collaborate on advanced technology development for our eVTOL. Cyient is one of India’s leading engineering companies with a wide range of business operations around the world, including in the aerospace industry.”

Hyderabad lay in south-central India, and it is the capital city of the state of Telangana.

Note: The original draft of this article was updated to include the Cyient agreement which was announced shortly after the initial publication.

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