Untethered flight footage released last week appears to confirm that this machine, for all its spectacular bodywork, is simply a multicopter with concealed fans. Not even a particularly stable one, from the looks of things; the half-scale prototype lifts off with a series of lurches that would see passengers start launching their lunches.
This can probably be fixed easily; multicopters are a long-solved problem, so unless that bodywork severely restricts airflow, a few settings tweaks will set it right in no time. What can't be fixed, unless we're missing something pretty significant, is the fact that this thing is just a multicopter, tarted up in carbon fairings that look like they're designed for high-speed horizontal flight. Never mind the fact that it doesn't seem to have any horizontal propulsion systems.
Electric VTOLs are all struggling against the fundamental problem of energy storage, and despite the battalions of scientists working to bring forth next-gen battery technology, it looks like these new aircraft will continue to be severely range-restricted into the medium-term future. So they need to be efficient, and there's no energy margin to waste on cosmetics if you want to fly any kind of useful distance.
[...]If Bellwether manages to pull together the funding to take this project to production, the Volar looks to have strong potential as a movie prop. [...]That may well be justification enough for the slapping down of a few multi-million dollar checks. If so, good luck to all parties – but Bellwether will need to prove the Volar's beauty is more than skin deep before it'll impress the aviation world