Lilium To Initiate Insolvency Protection Lilium was one of the initial leaders in the eVTOL space and 'til this point has been at the forefront in bringing its eVTOL to market. The German company is on the cusp of having a full-scale prototype to be flying in 2025. However, the company is about to file for insolvency protection as it tries to cue-up further capital to continue its operations. The company announced yesterday that it was going down this road and it comes on the heels of the German government blocking a €50 million ($54 million) loan guarantee, which in turn blocked a matching €50 million loan from the state of Bavaria.
"Our plan was to obtain shareholder investment in a new funding round anchored by the German government backed loan of €100 million," said Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe. "We had conditionally secured additional private capital to complement our KfW loan. However, the budget committee was unable to agree on the loan and Bavaria couldn’t do it alone."
Lilium has been in what it said were advanced discussions with the French government for a €219 million loan to support manufacturing plans in France. It has argued that rival AAM companies have received state support of one sort or another. Earlier in the month the company said that they went through the power-on process for the first aircraft. Two more aircraft prototypes are under construction.
Lilium aims to have type certification from EASA in time for deliveries in 2026. Alot of this rides on them being able to raise the necessary capital. "We deeply regret the insolvency and its consequences for all stakeholders at such a critical stage of our company’s development," Roewe said. "However, while there is no guarantee for success in insolvency proceedings, we hope that the Lilium Jet will get a chance for a fresh start after the self-administration process is completed." For more information: Lilium www.lilium.com ***