Dirk Hoke will step down as chief executive of German urban air mobility company Volocopter at the end of February 2025.
A successor will be announced “in due course”, the company said on 3 September.
“Over the past two years, he has succeeded in stabilising the company technologically and financially despite a difficult investment market environment,” Volocopter adds. “Important entrepreneurial structures and processes have been established in the start-up that will continue to shape the company in the future.”
Hoke, who formerly led Airbus’s Defence & Space unit and also worked at Siemens in various executive roles, praised the company’s “dynamic” development and says he is “firmly convinced that the set-up we have achieved puts us in the best possible position for the successful commercialisation of Volocopter”. He has been in the post since mid-2022.
The Bruchsal-headquartered electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle developer also says that former Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche will step in as advisory board chairman with immediate effect. He replaces Stefan Klocke, who will remain a member of the company’s advisory board.
“I am pleased that we have been able to gain an experienced new chairman of the advisory board in Dieter Zetsche, who has been with us for a long time, and will simultaneously strengthen our shareholder structure,” Hoke adds.
Zhihao Xu, chief executive of China’s Geely Technology Group, also joins the advisory board.
“The mobility of the future will take place both on the road and in the air,” Xu says. “Synergies are obvious, which is why I am delighted to be able to contribute my extensive experience to Volocopter.”
Geely’s unit Aerofugia entered into a joint venture with Volocopter in 2021, and the German company secured commitments for 150 aircraft later that year.
Volocopter had intended to launch commercial operations of its fourth-generation multi-rotor vehicle, VoloCity, at the recent Paris Summer Olympics, but had to be satisfied with conducting a series of demonstration flights under a permit-to-fly as security concerns took precedence.
VoloCity flew seven demonstration flights, six of which took place at the newly built vertiport at the aerodrome of Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole and one at the Palace of Versailles.
In April, Volocopter was confronted with a potential financial crisis when an expected German state loan guarantee of up to €100 million ($110 million) did not materialise, leaving the company to scramble for alternative means of financing. It had already raised already €500 million in start-up support for the costly certification journey.
At the time, Hoke told journalists that declaring insolvency was not off the table. In June, the company received a financial lifeline from “existing shareholders”, but did not disclose how much or from whom.
