Bengaluru and Mumbai, July 20 -- Seven years after the project first took shape in an IIT Madras laboratory, India now has its own electric air-taxi prototype. Backed by $20 million in funding, the venture is among the half-dozen-odd companies globally at the forefront of a technology that could reshape urban mobility.

Last week, Chennai-based ePlane Company, operated by Ubifly Technologies Pvt Ltd (UTPL), unveiled a 2,000-kg aircraft that takes off like a helicopter, carries one pilot and two passengers, and flies 100 km on a single charge. It is expected to cost no more than two-and-a-half times an Uber fare when it starts operations in 2028.

"It is our conviction that it is fewer than a dozen companies we are grouped with, perhaps ha...