Boeing, Zunum Aero, Airbus, Purdue University.

Boeing bets on flying cabs: The U.S. planemaker has acquired Aurora Flight Sciences that has last been on the news with its VTOL sponsored by the Pentagon and also for working with Uber Elevate. The firm has been advancing autonomous flying capabilities since 1989. The acquisition has yet to be approved by the U.S. Defense Department as it includes the transfer of Aurora’s novel technologies.
bloomberg.com, boeing.mediaroom.com

And Boeing backs another high flyer in Zunum Aero, a company working on a small hybrid airplane due by 2022. Using two electric motors and an engine, Zunum says its commuter aircraft can carry up to 12 passengers at speeds of 550 kph on trips of under 1,600 km. Once battery technology advances by the end of the decade though, Zunum Aero wants to offer planes for up to 50 people flying ever further.
reuters.com

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Across the pond, Airbus has been busy to move into electric airspace for some time already and says its all-electric CityAirbus is ready to start real world tests before the end of 2018. Testing the electric propulsion system has been concluded successfully and so soon, the 4-person plane may zigzag the sky at 120 kph and can also start and land vertically.
futurism.com, airbus.com

Smarter converters: Researchers from Purdue University researchers have come up with a smaller, more efficient drive system for hybrid and electric vehicles. They designed an improved power inverter that can be used to convert direct current electricity into alternating current to power a motor.
phys.org