Abstract The concept of electric vertical take-off and landing (E-VTOL) aerial vehicles is gaining more and more attention, thanks to their non-polluting operation and simple air traffic management. Indeed, around the world, there are currently more than 500 projects that concern the development and improvement of their performances. Development of sizing methods for rapid selection of the propulsion chain components remains an important task in this process. In this paper, an approach for sizing and selecting the propulsion chain components of an E-VTOL aerial vehicle is developed and validated. First, the optimal pair motor/propeller is selected using a global nonlinear optimization in order to maximize the specific efficiency of these components. Second, two energy storage technologies are considered and sized in order to assess their influence on the aerial vehicle flight time. Finally, based on this sizing process, the optimized propulsion chain gross take-off weight (GTOW) is evaluated, using regression methods based on propulsion chain supplier data.