Electrification Advancements

Performance-obsessed hypercar programs and next-generation urban air mobility both face the same constraint: weight. Eliminate every unnecessary kilogram, and everything else follows. In a recent feature for Power Transmission Engineering, Helix Chief Engineer Simon Mead details how decades of motorsport-honed expertise in system integration, thermal management, and collaborative engineering are reshaping what’s possible in integrated electric powertrains.

Mead’s portfolio spans two of the most demanding electric hypercar programs on record: the Lotus Evija, where four Helix Electric Propulsion Units delivered 1,500 kW peak power with 98 percent system efficiency, and the Czinger 21C, which set a production car lap record at Laguna Seca in December 2025. But the real innovation isn’t raw power, it’s the 20 percent mass savings Helix achieved through system integration and partnership. Equally compelling is the company’s latest eVTOL collaboration with transmission specialist Zoerkler, where a geared EPU design cuts the diameter of equivalent direct-drive solutions in half, unlocking critical payload and range improvements for advanced air mobility.

Beyond hypercars and aircraft, Helix is expanding into defence applications, bringing high-efficiency, low-signature propulsion solutions to a sector increasingly focused on electrification. The pattern across all three sectors is identical: smaller, lighter, smarter systems that prove electric powertrains can outperform legacy architectures in ways battery density alone never could.

Read the full article: Electrification Advancements — Power Transmission Engineering, August 2026