Supplying to Comac and leading electric aircraft OEMs, "Nuoyun Drive" creates a highly reliable "electric heart" for aircraft | Early-stage project

Text | Liu Jingqiong

Editor | A Zhi

Cover Source | Provided by the enterprise

In June 2024, the Civil Aviation Administration of China released four group standards, including the "General Requirements for Electric Propulsion Systems of Electric Aircraft", which filled the gap in technical specification standards in this field and marked that China's electric aviation industry has entered a stage of "standardized and orderly" development from the stage of "wild growth". Among the drafting units of the above group standards, Ningbo Nuoyun Drive Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nuoyun Drive") is the only company in the startup stage.

Nuoyun Drive's predecessor was a scientific research and industrial project incubated by the Power Electronics and Machine Control Research Center (PEMC) at the University of Nottingham. In 2018, founder Shi Bowen graduated with a doctorate in aerospace motor design from the University of Nottingham in the UK. He joined some members of the PEMC research team and, with the support of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, established the predecessor team of Nuoyun Drive and began to explore the engineering of aerospace-grade electric drive systems.

Relying on the research foundation of PEMC at the University of Nottingham in aerospace motors, power electronics, and system integration, and under the technical guidance of Academician Zhang He and Professor Chris Gerada, the predecessor team of Nuoyun Drive started to promote the marketization and industrialization of the scientific research achievements of aerospace-grade electric drive systems since 2018. It is reported that Chris Gerada, the British technical advisor, is the only expert in the motor direction among the next-generation 20-person expert group of Airbus and is also one of the top technical experts in the field of European aviation electrification.

From 2018 to 2022, the predecessor team of Nuoyun Drive successively provided R & D and delivery of various types of new energy motors and controller products for a certain drone and unmanned pneumatic boat, and cooperated with units such as the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, and major universities to complete a series of commercial cooperation and major scientific research projects. In 2022, based on the existing technical accumulation and team, founder Shi Bowen recruited a group of members with more than ten years of experience in the motor industry and airworthiness. He officially established Ningbo Nuoyun Drive Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on the R & D, engineering, and manufacturing of new energy aviation power systems.

Currently, Nuoyun Drive's products include new energy aviation power motors, high-speed starter generators, controllers (inverters), etc. The core products are the Maya series and Zen series electric drive systems. Among them, Maya70 and Maya80 have achieved small-scale mass production and have supplied products to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, leading fixed-wing aircraft, and eVTOL aircraft manufacturers; the Zen series products have completed technical verification and will be mass-produced at an appropriate time according to market demand in the future.

Maya series products

Full-stack self-developed integrated electric drive system, achieving high reliability and high performance with aerospace-grade technology

From the perspective of engineering application, current all-electric aircraft still face multiple constraints among flight range, payload, and system weight. Simply increasing the battery capacity to extend the aircraft's flight range often leads to a rapid increase in weight and cost, and there are obvious boundaries to its engineering feasibility and comprehensive efficiency. Against this background, a more practical technical path in the industry is to optimize the power density, system integration level, and unit weight output capacity of the electric drive system, so that the same battery can achieve higher energy utilization efficiency, thereby achieving a more ideal engineering balance among flight range, payload, and cost.

Based on the above ideas, Nuoyun Drive has launched an electric drive product with a highly integrated design of motor, electronic control, and thermal management through full-stack self-development. While reducing its own weight and volume, it also effectively improves the overall safety and operational reliability of the aircraft. "Taking the Maya series products as an example, we insisted on using the dual-three-phase safety redundant architecture at the prototype stage of the project in 2018, that is, setting up two independent three-phase drive channels in the same power system. This design can ensure that when one channel malfunctions, the other channel can still maintain a controlled output, providing stable power for the aircraft," explained Shi Bowen.

The advantages of the highly integrated design also help to reduce the product assembly complexity and improve the overall delivery efficiency. Shi Bowen said, "For the standard products of the Maya series, Nuoyun Drive can achieve small-batch delivery within two months; for customized products, we can also complete the delivery from scratch within three to six months."

When asked about benchmarking enterprises, Shi Bowen mentioned two popular European companies in the industry - YASA and Emrax. Taking Nuoyun Drive's flagship product, Maya70, as an example, with multiple performance indicators doubling, the cost of Maya70 is approximately equal to or even lower than that of similar products from YASA and Emrax. In Shi Bowen's view, "The competition in the aviation electric propulsion system does not depend on the extreme values of single performance parameters, but more on the system-level design, reliability redundancy, and the sustainability of the manufacturing system. Based on the team's more than 20 years of technical accumulation in the field of aviation electrification, Nuoyun Drive chooses to use automotive-grade components as the basis of the mature device system and realizes high-performance and lightweight solutions for complex systems through aerospace-grade system architecture and design methods."

Based on civil aviation and low-altitude economy application scenarios, leveraging industrial investment partners to accelerate the industrialization process

In terms of R & D progress, in addition to the Maya series products, Nuoyun Drive has also launched the next-generation pre-research product - the Zen series electric drive products. The Zen series is positioned for higher power levels, with peak power ranging from 500kW to 2MW. Currently, the key technology verification has been completed, and the engineering and mass production will be gradually promoted according to specific application scenarios and market demand in the future.

In terms of business planning, Nuoyun Drive focuses on civil aviation and low-altitude economy application scenarios, combines the technical accumulation of both Chinese and British sides in the field of aviation electrification and the advantages of the local manufacturing system in China, and continuously promotes the productization and engineering implementation of new energy aviation electric drive systems. At the same time, Nuoyun Drive also provides a full set of power system solutions for aircraft manufacturers through cooperation with third-party partners.

Specifically regarding the commercialization progress, Nuoyun Drive has currently supplied Maya series products to many leading electric fixed-wing aircraft, hydrogen-powered fixed-wing aircraft, and eVTOL aircraft manufacturers, including relevant platforms of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's civil aircraft.

It is reported that there are currently 6 products in the Maya series, with peak power ranging from 20 to 250kW, which can meet the electric drive needs of all electric aircraft within the scope of the current low-altitude economy in China, including eCTOL, eSTOL, and eVTOL. Among them, the best-selling Maya70 and Maya80 have achieved small-scale mass production, and both use the oil-cooling technology self-developed by Nuoyun Drive.

With the increase in orders, to solve the problem of production capacity shortage, Nuoyun Drive completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan in November 2025. One of the investors, Shenglong Co., Ltd., is a parts supplier to many mainstream vehicle manufacturers at home and abroad. "With the help of Shenglong Co., Ltd., Nuoyun will speed up filling the gaps in the supply chain and industrialization." It is reported that Nuoyun Drive's first-phase production line will be put into operation in the middle of 2026.

Currently, Nuoyun Drive is in the process of a new round of financing.