Electrical innovation for more sustainable aviation and new mobility concepts

Electrical innovation for more sustainable aviation and new mobility concepts

Rolls-Royce is working with industry partners to pioneer hybrid-electric and all-electric power and propulsion. This quiet revolution will soon offer the opportunity for more sustainable growth and reduced carbon emissions - and also transform the way we travel.

Rolls-Royce has a bold ambition to play a crucial role in pioneering a resilient, net zero carbon future. We are aiming to become net zero carbon in our operations by 2030 and, more fundamentally, set an ambition to play a vital role in enabling the sectors in which we operate to reach net zero carbon by 2050 through the development of new products and technologies.

This includes an environmental strategy for aviation that has three strands: increasingly fuel-efficient products; supporting the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable aviation fuels; and pursuing novel and disruptive technologies, such as electrification.

Championing sustainable power and propulsion is a key part of this strategy and electrification has a considerable potential to transform mass transport through enablement of all-electric and hybrid-electric systems with lower CO2 footprints. For the first time, aviation is now exploring electrification for passenger-carrying aircraft to unlock environmental as well as many other socio-economic benefits. We believe that in a post-COVID world, people will still want to fly and will want to do so even more sustainably.