Eviation has laid off 30 of its staff and has paused work on its nine-passenger Alice fixed-wing electric aircraft as it seeks new investment. According to a source close to the U.S-based company, a small team has been retained as its main shareholder, the Clermont Group, tries to get commitments from new financial backers and industrial partners.

Almost two and a half years since Eviation flew a technology demonstrator at Moses Lake in Washington state, the company has not said when it will build and fly a prototype aircraft as it works towards securing FAA type certification. In April 2024, it announced the completion of the conceptual design review with the support of engineering contractor TLG Aerospace, which is not currently involved in the program.

“This decision was not made lightly,” said Eviation CEO Andre Stein, a former executive with Embraer and Eve Air Mobility, who was appointed in December 2023. “However, we believe this temporary pause is necessary to focus on identifying the right long-term partnerships to help us make electric commercial regional flight a reality. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our customers and partners for their support for the Alice program. And we would especially like to thank our employees for their hard work in accelerating the electric revolution in aviation.”

Eviation has reported a letter of intent agreement covering around 600 orders for the Alice aircraft in both passenger and cargo configurations. Prospective customers include German regional airline start-ups Flyvbird and Evia Aero, leasing groups Solyu and Monte, Air New Zealand, charter operator GlobalX, UrbanLink Air Mobility, Cape Air, Aerus, and Northern Territory Air Service. The same source told AIN that, so far, all these agreements remain intact.

MagniX, which is also majority-owned by the Singapore-based Clermont Group, is providing a pair of its Magni650 electric propulsion systems for the Alice aircraft. Other program partners include GKN Aerospace (wings, empennage, and electric wiring), Honeywell (flight deck systems and fly-by-wire controls), and Parker Aerospace (cockpit controls, flaps, and thermal management system).

Ten-year Project Now Stalled

As recently as October 2024, Stein told AIN that Eviation’s leadership was “very comfortable” with its level of financial backing, which he said had been bolstered by pre-delivery payments from customers. At the time, he said Eviation was not actively fundraising, although it was seeking new partnerships.

Eviation was founded in 2015 by a group of Israeli entrepreneurs, including Omer Bar-Yohay, who resigned as CEO in March 2022 but remained a minority shareholder. In 2019, the Clermont Group acquired a 70% stake in the company. Former MagniX CEO Roei Ganzarski also served as the company’s executive chairman until January 2022, when he resigned from both positions.

The company unveiled a full-scale model of the Alice at the Paris Air Show in June 2019. After some development work conducted in Arizona, extensive changes had to be made to the design in order to simplify the certification process and in response to customer feedback calling for banked approaches that were not possible with the electric motors installed on the wingtips.

Both MagniX and Eviation are relatively new additions to the Clermont Group’s business portfolio, which is mainly focused on financial services and healthcare. MagniX has been making more progress with its plans to re-engine existing aircraft such as the DHC-2 and the Cessna Grand Caravan. It has also been involved in joint work with NASA on electric propulsion.

“The Clermont Group remains committed to revolutionizing air travel through innovative electric solutions,” said a company spokesperson. “We will continue to seek long-term strategic partners who share our vision and passion for building the future of flight.”

The program pause announced by Eviation comes a week after ATR confirmed that it is pushing back projected service entry for its planned Evo hybrid-electric regional airliner from 2030 to 2035. In a briefing on February 12, the European aircraft manufacturer, which is part-owned by Airbus, said prospective engine suppliers needed more time to develop a viable powertrain for the program.