eVTOL pricing will be ‘comparable to an Uber X,’ Eve Co-CEO says

Eve Co-CEOs Andre Stein and Jerry DeMuro join Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the company going public via a SPAC merger deal, eVTOL pricing, revenue growth, and the outlook for the the air mobility market.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: Air mobility company EVe made its public debut via SPAC merger with Zanite Acquisition today under the ticker EVEX on the New York Stock Exchange. Stock is sliding today, though, EVe forecasting revenue $4.5 billion by 2030. This is an early stage company-- let's be clear.

Joining us to discuss are EVe co-CEOs Andre Stein and Jerry DeMuro. Good to see you, gentlemen. Jerry, nice to see you again. Andre, nice to see you for the first time on this day.

So, as I say, it's early stage. And Jerry, that was clear to us when we talked before. You guys are an EV TAL company-- Electric Vertical Takeoff And Landing, which we refreshed ourselves on the-- on that acronym earlier today. Andre, I'll start with you because we've talked to Jerry in the past. Talk to us about the flight path, so to speak, of the company now that you are making this journey to a public company.

ANDRE STEIN: That's a great moment for us, definitely. Has been a long road before us, right? So we have been incubating this project inside [INAUDIBLE] that was in bear market accelerator for the last five years or so. And now-- now it's the time for us to start flying with our own wings as well.

And this moment give us a lot of confidence to reach our final goal and deliver a solution for the open air mobility market. That's a completely new segment for aerospace.

BRIAN SOZZI: Jerry, this is-- this is a very nervous market. This is Brian here. Good to talk to you again. This is a very nervous market. Can you alleviate any concerns on when you might start be making these products and-- and when we might actually see them in the air?

JERRY DEMURO: Well, good morning, and thanks for-- for having us back. As we talked about before, this is a-- a long-term project. As you know, it's an early stage company. Our schedule is to have vehicles enter into service in 2026. So the temporary fluctuations in the market are not that concerning to us. This is really a long-term initiative, and we're focused on executing on that development plan. We've-- we've not wavered from that plan. And we're very confident that we'll be able to deliver a-- a great product to the market. And with this listing now, we're well capitalized. We've got a great balance sheet that will carry us through there.

So while the market is an interesting thing to observe in the short term, it's really not affecting our plans or our progress, given our capitalization and where we stand today.

- Andre, what-- what should the consumer expect from this experience, whether that be in pricing, whether that be in the reality of what's going to be required of them? You know, does it cut down the pricing? Does it cut down that time travel? And what's-- what's the benefit?

ANDRE STEIN: Well, the benefit-- and you hit it on the spot. This morning-- actually, yesterday morning, I came from JFK to Manhattan, for example. It took me about two hours to get here. So that's exactly the problem we are tackling.

And I don't intend to solve all the traffic problems, but what you are bringing, it's a new solution. It's another option for people to move around the city. So if you need to be home earlier, if you need to catch a flight, you can cut that down for maybe 10, 15 minutes.

And throughout the journey, we are really looking at the whole ecosystem, much more than only the vehicle. We are looking at different solutions that do make it possible, the service that will-- that we will provide, the air traffic management solution that will allow that to scale in a very safe and profitable way.

JERRY DEMURO: And from a pricing point of view, really, when-- when we move into service, we're looking at something that would be comparable to an Uber X.

BRIAN SOZZI: Jerry, when you talk to-- when you talk to regulators, what are some of the biggest challenges you're going to have to alleviate from their perspective?

JERRY DEMURO: So each configuration, there are a number of entrants in the market, as there was in the early days of the automotive industry. And each configuration has its own unique issues. One of the things that brought me, actually, to Embraer and EVe is the simplicity of our design, the minimal number of moving parts, the flight law-- control laws that apply to that.

So each will be a little bit different. And as you know, Embraer has more experience than anybody in certifying something like 30 aircraft in the last two decades--

ANDRE STEIN: 25 years.

JERRY DEMURO: --or so. And so we understand that this process has to evolve, that it is a new type of vehicle incorporating other technologies. And we've planned for that. And based on our experience, we're confident, as we've worked through with the regulators in the past, what the certification requirements will be and then how you demonstrate safety against those.

So yet to evolve. We're working with the regulators today in the United States, Europe, and our primary certifier, ANAC, in Brazil on defining those requirements as we speak.

JULIE HYMAN: And Andre, how important is it-- you guys just mentioned there are some competitors who are also trying to get off the ground in the space. How's im-- important is it going to be to be first?

ANDRE STEIN: It's not that important to be first. It's important to get it right. I think that's the main goal. We are here, as Jerry said, for the long-- long term. So it's important to get the right products, not only for our direct customers, but particularly for the end user. And you're are using and putting a lot of effort on that, on make it right.

So we are definitely among the pioneers of this industry since the beginning. As I mentioned, we start this project quite some years back. But it's not really about being the first. It's really about getting it right.

- All right, Andre Stein and Jerry DeMuro, who are the EVe co-CEOs, joining us here. We're going to see how you get this right and how you get it off the ground as well. And we'll have to take a ride in one of those eventually, too. Appreciate the time.