Lilium’s future is hanging by the slenderest of threads after the German electric air taxi developer laid off most of its staff on 20 December, telling them that it was ceasing operations.
While there is no official statement from Lilium, company insiders confirm the mass layoffs, alongside multiple LinkedIn posts from former employees which say they are now looking for work. A handful of workers have been retained in a caretaker capacity.
Although around 200 staff were let go earlier in the month, around 1,000 employees remained as Lilium attempted to sell its two main operating units Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH. Development work on the Lilium Jet had also continued.
The two businesses had been placed into a self-administration insolvency process in late October with the hope they could be sold as going concerns.
KPMG was leading the sale process, working to a pre-Christmas deadline coinciding with the end of three months of German federal employee payment protection.
That process appeared to be nearing a conclusion at the end of last week; German media had reported multiple offers for the company.
But the mass redundancies appear to indicate the deal fell through at the last minute.
Nonetheless, sources say the company is holding out hope that a rescue of some sort can still be achieved, although there is precious little time in which to finalise any agreement.
