Loving Lilium (21) Waiting for the First Manned Flight

Last week, the wing for the first Lilium Jet being produced at the Wessling production facility has been successfully matched to the?fuselage. Lilium continues at pace with the final assembly of 7 “production type” aircrafts to be used for the flight test campaign.

Now we are waiting for the first manned flight in the second half of 2024.

This is a major company milestone unlocking key value drivers:

Remaining funding needs

Fundraising milestones will be focussed on non-dilutive funding *) such as PDP’s, grants and loans. ?Lilium cannot use the federal Venture Tech Growth Financing program (existing turnover is needed) nor the federal Deep Tech Climate Fund (not open for public listed companies). But some hope is glooming both in Germany and Europe:

1.?Lilium confirms the desire for government funding according to Handelsblatt last month. "We are receiving positive signals from Berlin and Munich." The problem of the lack of funding opportunities for so-called Deeptech startups is acknowledged. "We are now specifically hoping for a solution."?

2.?Last week, a taskforce was launched by its members in a meeting with the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean, to look at the next generation of mobility technologies, from electric eVTOL aircraft and delivery drones to EV fast charging infrastructure and maglev rail. The 18 companies comprising the new taskforce are: Aura Aero, Bolt, Cabify, CARTO, Dronamics, EVBox, EV Connect, Fastned, Flix, Lilium, MaasGlobal, Nevomo, Omio, OTIV, Scoobic, Volocopter, Voi and Virta. “Today marked the launch of the EU Future Mobility Taskforce, where 16 CEOs and Founders from Europe’s top private mobility unicorns and startups joined forces,” said Commissioner for Transport, Adina V?lean. “In a dynamic meeting, we delved into the needs of our transport innovators and explored ground-breaking initiatives like Drone Strategy 2.0 and future Hyperloop regulatory frameworks. The European Union is boosting financial support for transportation innovators and startups through Horizon Europe cluster 5 and EIT Urban Mobility. The European Innovation Council (EIC), with a €10bn budget, is calling on transport entrepreneurs to apply.” For more information read this article. The article header suggests that there is a launch of a €10bn European fund for Future Mobility. This is not correct. The European Innovation Council (EIC) has a Budget of €10bln for all startups in EU, not only for this Mobility Taskforce. Support is limited to a maximum of € 15 million € per company, you can find alle EIC details here.

eVTOL Infrastructure in Germany and Europe

Last week Lilium also announced a partnership with Airport operator Fraport, to explore required planning and approval steps for state-of-the-art infrastructure for the implementation of commercial eVTOL operations at airports. Fraport is active at 30 international airports across four continents.?The partnership will start by preparing Germany and the industry for the introduction of regional electric air mobility through working with industry groups and the German government to jointly discuss and accelerate necessary regulatory work.??Fraport and Lilium plan to analyze future mobility concepts for vertiport networks that are suitable for electric aircraft. Fraport and Lilium will also examine how future vertiport concepts for this type of mobility could look like, especially at and around airports. The Fraport partnership will complement Lilium’s existing partnerships at airports across Germany including the airports of Stuttgart, Munich, Nuremberg, Cologne-Bonn and Düsseldorf.??Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe highlights: "With Fraport, we have partnered with one of the most renowned international airport operators in the world. Through this partnership, we expect to be able to analyze the conditions for regional aviation with electrically powered and quiet jets. Our goal is to jointly advance regulatory and practical steps for suitable framework conditions for electric aviation and our potential customers in Germany and Europe."??

*) Remark it’s important for Lilium shareholders that dilutive funding is only opened for new strategic partners @ much higher share price than current levels, read Loving Lilium (20) The investors Journey.

January 15, 2024 Menno van Diermen, LovingLilium.com

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