Confirmed: No financial aid for Lilium from Germany

On Thursday, government representatives confirmed it had not reached a majority in favour of the project. Last week, numerous concerns of parliamentarians in the Budget Committee became known. However, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had campaigned in favour of state aid in the form of a guarantee at the time. Later, both Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) “campaigned for the aid to the very end,” as Der Spiegel now writes.

It is precisely this intensive campaigning by Scholz that is now causing scepticism. “It is always impressive what this man has time for,” Der Spiegel quotes a member of the Budget Committee. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” adds another committee member. “It would have been so easy to make decisions in the taxpayer’s interests.”

While Scholz’s party, the SPD, favoured the state aid, according to its chief budget officer Dennis Rohde, there was no majority in the coalition. Bavaria’s Minister President Markus Söder (CSU) also called the decision on X a “bitter setback for Germany as a centre of technology.” The 50 million euro loan from the federal government would have been flanked by an equally high loan from the Free State of Bavaria.

The Munich-based startup has long been struggling to obtain a state guarantee for a loan of at least 100 million euros – and had threatened to leave Germany if this did not work out. This threat caught on with some politicians, who feared the loss of a key technology of the future.

The current decision was preceded by a so-called due diligence review, which the German government and the Free State of Bavaria had commissioned the state development bank KfW to carry out. Depending on the outcome, Lilium was to receive a potential state guarantee as collateral for a KfW loan. According to previous statements, Lilium is aiming for a credit volume of at least 100 million euros.

Founded by graduates of the Technical University of Munich, the startup is developing a seven-seater electric aeroplane that takes off vertically. Only in the summer did the company announce a major order from Saudi Arabia with a firm order for 50 jets. The development of the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) is costly. The company employs 850 people at its headquarters in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, but has never generated any turnover. According to media reports, Lilium has already received 1.5 billion euros from investors and has largely used it up. According to Der Spiegel, the capital requirement until the planned type certification in 2026 should be between 300 and 500 million euros. The first manned flight is scheduled for 2025.

spiegel.de (in German)