Hyundai’s electric air taxi startup Supernal has paused work on its aircraft program after a rocky few months that saw staff cuts and the departure of its CEO and CTO, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The shakeup comes at a time when Supernal has barely gotten off the ground — literally. The first test flight of its technology demonstrator happened earlier this year. And though Supernal has performed subsequent tests, the company was still working toward its first untethered test flight before the pause. The company had planned to launch a commercial service in 2028.
Supernal announced the departure of CEO Jaiwon Shin late last week. David McBride, the CTO, has also left, according to people familiar, who were granted anonymity to speak about private company matters. The OC Register first reported the pause on Supernal’s flight program and McBride’s departure.
With regards to the commercial service, the startup told TechCrunch that the “newly appointed leadership will assess and determine the optimal timeline moving forward.” The company declined to comment on McBride leaving.
Supernal’s struggles come as the nascent electric air taxi industry is in a period of upheaval. Some startups, like Toyota-backed Joby, have been raising and announcing partnerships and acquisitions. Others, like Lillium, have gone out of business.
Spun out of the Hyundai Group in 2021, Supernal laid off dozens earlier this summer ahead of the executive shakeup. That followed the startup abruptly winding down its still-new Washington, D.C. headquarters late last year, as TechCrunch previously reported.
David Rottblatt, Supernal’s senior business development director, is overseeing the “business operations of Supernal during this transition as Interim COO.” The larger Hyundai Group “plans to appoint new leadership with deep expertise in business operations to advance Urban Air Mobility (UAM) solutions and guide the organization into its next phase of growth,” according to the press release about Shin’s departure.
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That initial test flight had been long-promised by the now-former CEO. At the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show — where the company showed off a larger, non-flying concept vehicle — Shin talked about how Supernal was nearly ready to “push the limits of the technology with the demonstrator.” And in August 2024, McBride told Vertical Mag that the test flight would “validate our ability to build an aircraft” ahead of a planned 2028 commercial launch.
This is the second futuristic startup under the Hyundai umbrella to run into trouble in recent years. In 2024, the Korean conglomerate had to double down on its autonomous vehicle startup Motional after backing partner Aptiv decided to stop funding what had been a joint venture. That led to a major restructuring at Motional late last year that involved layoffs of around 40% of its staff, and the eventual departure of CEO Karl Iagnemma.
