“The proliferation of aircraft with ‘new’ batteries would lead to unrealistic mission profiles that would quickly degrade after a few weeks of operation, making the all-electric passenger aircraft a mere ‘Green Transition flagship’ rather than a real player in the decarbonisation of aviation,” Tecnam says. The company adds that even if it considered the most optimistic forecasts for slow charging cycles and the possible limitation of the maximum state of charge per cycle, the actual storage capacity would fall below 170Wh/kg. Flights operators would then have to replace the entire storage unit after only a few hundred flights, leading to a “dramatic increase in direct operating costs” due to the battery replacement price.
