2.39 million yuan to buy an "air taxi", what can you do when you buy it?

Cultural tourism and fire protection are the main uses at present, and after doing a good job in the business of to B and to G, the real to C "flying" travel still needs to break through the technical level, at least 3-5 years

Text | Wang Jingyi

Edit | Shi Zhiliang

If you have 2.39 million yuan, would you rather buy a luxury sports car or buy an "air taxi"?

It doesn't seem to be hard to choose. Of course, luxury sports cars are good, but when there is a traffic jam, it can't save a second compared to the cheap model, and the "air taxi" directly finds another way, and is no longer afraid of congestion on the ground, and it is more sci-fi futuristic.

The EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft from EHang (Nasdaq: EH), with a price tag of 2.39 million yuan, has recently gone on sale and attracted a lot of attention.

At this stage, there may not be many private buyers, and cultural tourism is the main purpose. For example, EHang has already started trial operation of air tourism in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities, and plans to open up 100 low-altitude sightseeing routes in tourist attractions or urban landmarks in many places across the country within a year.

To G's fire protection is another important use, such as high-rise rescue, high-rise fire extinguishing and forest fire prevention, etc., and unmanned driving can efficiently replace manual labor.

As for urban air mobility and "flying" travel between cities, a number of upstream and downstream people in the industrial chain interviewed by Yike (ID: carcaijing) generally believe that it is necessary to break through multiple technical barriers such as safety and comfort, and it will take at least 3-5 years to obtain airworthiness certification.

01

Cultural tourism and fire fighting are the main uses

On March 18, EHang EH216-S (hereinafter referred to as "EH216-S"), the world's first "air taxi" to obtain TC airworthiness certification, was launched on Taobao industrial products with a price tag of 2.39 million yuan. As soon as the news came out, EHang's stock price rose sharply.

Image source/IC

On March 20, following the launch of Taobao, this air taxi appeared in the "Make a Friend" Taobao live broadcast room with a deposit of 39,900 yuan, and 11 people have paid a deposit.

The aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 620kg, can carry 2 adults, has a maximum range of 30km with a full load, a maximum cruise speed of 130km/h, and a flight time of 25 minutes.

The industry generally believes that this move is mainly to expand market influence and deepen consumer awareness, and secondly, to promote actual sales.

A person in the industry chain told Carcaijing that EHang EH216-S can only fly on land in sparsely populated areas, not across the sea, so it must be in specific areas such as scenic spots, and it is difficult to achieve long-distance travel within the city and across the city; it can only operate during the day, and it cannot operate in meteorological environments such as rain and snow.

According to EHang's EH216-S Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) disclosed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, operational restrictions include: prohibiting operation under known or predicted meteorological conditions such as rain, snow, thunderstorms, icing, sandstorms, fog, etc., operating during daytime only, aircraft flying in isolated airspace, aircraft flying over sparsely populated areas, aircraft flying within the line of sight of remote crews, and aircraft operating on water, including takeoff, landing and forced landing.

Based on such technical characteristics, EHang's customers are concentrated in the two major fields of cultural tourism and fire emergency, and carry out regular operations in urban sightseeing, emergency rescue and other scenarios, and do business to B and G.

In recent years, EHang has started trial operation of air tourism in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities.

The latest addition to the list is Hefei, where EHang has already conducted several flight tests and is expected to launch an aerial tour in the second quarter of 2024, as well as a fixed-point pick-up service in cooperation with businesses such as restaurants and homestays.

Previously, the Hefei Municipal Government and EHang reached a strategic cooperation on low-altitude economy, and Hefei plans to provide 100 million US dollars in support, as well as coordinate or facilitate the purchase order of no less than 100 EH216 series unmanned aerial vehicles to promote low-altitude economic development.

EHang 216 manned aircraft|Image source/network

Fang Xin, COO of EHang, told Carcaijing that EHang will also accelerate the implementation of the "100 Air Traffic Lines Plan" and open 100 routes within a year, with an initial focus on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and gradually expanding to other parts of China. Most of the operation points are located in tourist attractions or city landmarks, and the main scene is low-altitude sightseeing.

In the field of firefighting, EHang has launched the 216F (firefighting version), which is equipped with fire extinguishing agents and fire extinguishing bombs for three application scenarios: high-rise rescue, high-rise fire extinguishing and forest fire prevention, and can also complete rescue work in complex environments such as high temperature, thick smoke, wind and rain.

Unmanned manned aircraft are a type of eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft). As the low-altitude economy has been written into the government work report and included in one of the national strategic emerging industries, more and more enterprises and capital have poured into this track.

Thanks to the airworthiness certification obtained at the end of 2023 to promote sales, the financial report shows that EHang's revenue in 2023 will be 117 million yuan, an increase of 164.97% year-on-year, and its net profit will be -302 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%.

02

"Flying" travel still takes 3-5 years

Starting from the scenarios of to B and to G, and the ultimate goal is to carry people to C, which is a realistic and feasible progressive business path for eVTOL.

"First to meet the rigid needs of to B and to G, the penetration rate is gradually increasing, and the real big market lies in manned travel, taking away the share of urban ground transportation, especially high-end travel. For example, it only takes 15 minutes to fly from the city center to the airport in the morning and evening rush hours, while the ground transportation takes 1 hour, which is very attractive to time-sensitive people. Zhao Ju, partner of Rongyi Investment, has a market size of 100 billion yuan for eVTOL manned travel (ID: carcaijing) that eVTOL manned travel has a market size worth 100 billion.

People in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain generally believe that it still takes 3-5 years for "flying" travel.

There are many difficulties to break through, and technology is the first to bear the brunt, especially safety and comfort.

Bai Zhiliang, chairman and CEO of Huayu Xianxiang, an eVTOL company incubated by Xi'an University of Technology, told Carcaijing that from a global perspective, urban air mobility and manned eVTOL between cities are currently in the product development stage and have not been actually implemented. It's even hard to predict which company will go faster, as prototypes and prototypes are generally in the early stages, and designs are still changing and iterating.

Safety is at the heart of everything. Bai Zhiliang said that the airworthiness safety of civil airliners is 10 to the minus 9 power, and the current industry recognition of eVTOL is about 10 minus 8 power, which is higher than the minus 7 power of helicopter 10. If it can achieve the same safety as a civil airliner, eVTOL can naturally operate in densely populated areas above cities.

EHang's manned aircraft attracts everyone's curiosity|Image source/IC

The R&D cycle of an aircraft should be at least 5-6 years. Zhao Ju believes that the first is the technical level, eVTOL from the whole machine design to the supply chain, is just starting, and in recent years, the technological progress of new energy vehicles has laid a good foundation for the industry, and key technological breakthroughs such as batteries and electric drives can be reused.

Zhao Ju said that from the first aircraft to take off, to accumulate flight mileage, and then to get TC airworthiness certification, the entire industry must move forward step by step, and there is no shortcut to safety.

Safety is paramount, and comfort is also very important for manned flights. In the case of helicopters, for example, occasionally people in the city will hear loud noise, but after flying over, the noise will disappear, and if eVTOL is to be used on a large scale, it must require very low-noise products.

"It's not that electrification equals low noise, because the main source of noise in the aircraft is the propeller, so it is necessary to do a good job in the overall design of the aircraft and choose the appropriate technical route. In the future, to enter large-scale commercial operation, performance must be the core of the competition, such as who has lower noise, who has higher flight speed, who has a longer cruising range, and who has the lowest energy consumption. Bai Zhiliang said to a passenger (ID: carcaijing).

With a reliable product, there is a real scenario where consumers are willing to pay, and there are more unexpected market needs that will be stimulated.

Zhao Ju summarized three types of scenarios:

The first is the information dimension, which should "stand high and see far", such as the security field, river channels, forest areas and oil pipeline inspections, which can be replaced by eVTOL;

The second is the energy dimension, which improves the efficiency of transporting people and goods, and reduces the time and overall cost of eVTOL.

The third is the emotional dimension, such as tourism and air sports, which do not generate actual economic value like the previous two, but provide emotional value for users, which is also a real payment scenario.

Provide information, energy and emotions, and in 3-5 years, diverse "flying" travel is likely to become a reality.