eVTOLs in Inter-Hospital Medical Transport: A Simulation Based Scenario Analysis for Bavaria
Benedikt M. DREYER, Sophie F. ARMANINI
Abstract. With the ongoing hospital centralization in Germany, novel effective solutions for inter-hospital transport are required, a role mostly fulfilled by understaffed emergency ambulances. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, promising fast and affordable transportation, have emerged as a potential solution for building up an effective patient transportation fleet. This work explores the feasibility and performance of eVTOL vehicles in inter-hospital patient transport, using Bavaria, Germany, as a real-world case study. An agent-based simulation framework was developed to compare ambulance, helicopter, and both battery-electric and hybrid eVTOL fleets as well as a combined hybrid eVTOL and ambulance fleet under realistic demand conditions. Simulation results show that a network with only 25 hybrid eVTOLs achieves 94% demand coverage with 41% fewer personnel and a 54% reduction in waiting time compared to a similar-performance ambulance network, at only a 33% increase in costs per patient kilometer. Compared to helicopters, the simulated eVTOL fleet offers significant cost savings, primarily in variable operational expenses. Battery-powered eVTOL vehicles offer locally emission-free operation at similar per-mission costs to hybrid eVTOLs, albeit at reduced demand coverage due to range limitations.
Keywords
HEMS, eVTOL, Agent-based Simulation, Operational Cost
Published online 7/20/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Benedikt M. DREYER, Sophie F. ARMANINI, eVTOLs in Inter-Hospital Medical Transport: A Simulation Based Scenario Analysis for Bavaria, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 817-821, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-144
The article was published as article 144 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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