EHang won the production license for eVTOL racing airworthiness operation at home and abroad

The world's mainstream eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) companies are actively promoting the low-altitude economy, from airworthiness certification to landing.

Recently, overseas-listed eVTOL companies have successively disclosed their revenue performance in fiscal year 2023, and proposed a clear timetable for their airworthiness progress and commercial planning. From this, we can see the current state of operation and racing of leading manufacturers at home and abroad.

On the whole, there is little difference between domestic and foreign countries in terms of airworthiness approval and commercial process, and the difference may come from the company's positioning and supply chain integration method.

China is actively promoting the three-stage certification of airworthiness. Recently, on April 7, EHang's EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system was awarded a production license (PC), which is the first production license in the global eVTOL industry. After the EH216-S successively obtained the Type Certificate (TC) and the Standard Airworthiness Certificate (AC), it marked that the model took the lead in entering the stage of large-scale production.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter found that Joby, a listed company in the United States, is recognized as the industry leader, and the company will suffer a large year-on-year loss in 2023, which is related to the company's active promotion of airworthiness certification. The type certification process also means a large financial expense.

Joby not only positions itself as an aircraft manufacturer, but also intends to operate its own air taxi service independently. In addition to continuing to promote airworthiness certification, the company has been accelerating the construction of air-related infrastructure this year, which is typically reflected in multi-party cooperation to build charging pile facilities.

The globalization of the industry is also accelerating. Leading domestic eVTOL companies are actively promoting airworthiness and delivery in overseas markets, while leading overseas companies such as Lilium are also planning to set up their Chinese headquarters in Shenzhen, and have reached an aircraft procurement agreement with Shenzhen Eastern General Aviation.

Airworthiness Race

The global airworthiness certification of eVTOLs seems to be accelerating.

In February, Joby announced the completion of the third of five phases of the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") certification process, marking the first eVTOL vendor in the world to do so.

According to reports, Joby submitted in the third phase of the certification plan (ASCP) that includes about a dozen specific areas, covering the software and hardware involved in each system of the company's five-seat eVTOL, including flight control, energy storage and distribution systems, and propulsion systems, etc., and also includes detailed plans for aircraft cybersecurity and system security. The company is currently in the process of moving towards the fourth phase of certification.

However, due to the fact that Joby has taken the tiltrotor technology route, which is recognized as having a long early development cycle, its progress has attracted much attention.

On March 22, the V2000CG unmanned aircraft system independently developed by Fengfei Aviation Technology obtained the Type Certificate (TC) issued by the East China Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China, which is the world's first eVTOL above tonnage level that has passed the type qualification certification.

EHang has taken the lead in obtaining three certificates due to the early progress of the overall process.

As an emerging thing, there is no unified standard for the airworthiness certification of eVTOL aircraft in the world. Previously, the United States had formulated a version of the standard, but subsequent revisions have delayed the certification time of Joby, and the domestic approach to manned eVTOLs has been adopted on a case-by-case basis.

In March 2024, the FAA published official airworthiness guidelines for Joby's eVTOL model, the JAS4-1, which will take effect on April 8, 2024. Huatai Securities believes that this is the first eVTOL airworthiness standard officially promulgated and implemented by the FAA, marking that the airworthiness certification standard of JAS4-1 has been determined, and it will enter the formal airworthiness certification process in the future.

The agency believes that due to the long period from development to obtaining the airworthiness certificate, the aircraft that first obtains the airworthiness certificate has a strong first-mover advantage, and whether the airworthiness certificate can be obtained as soon as possible depends on the technology and production level of the aircraft development and production enterprises, and also depends on the airworthiness certification ability of low-altitude aircraft.

At the end of March, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a public exchange that the next step will be to speed up the construction of relevant infrastructure, explore innovative UAV airworthiness certification models, and iteratively upgrade the safety supervision system for low-altitude flights.

Accelerate collaboration

The current development background of eVTOL companies will be different, and their starting methods and future directions will also be different.

Joby has a clear industrial synergy. At the time of the 2021 IPO, the company disclosed information that Toyota Motor Corporation had invested nearly $400 million in Joby at that time, making it the company's largest external investor. In addition to financial investments, Toyota engineers work with Joby on collaborative projects on a daily basis, such as being involved in plant planning and layout, manufacturing process development, and design for manufacturability.

Prior to the IPO, Joby also partnered with Uber and acquired the latter's Elevate business, with the aim of enhancing the software side of infrastructure siting, demand simulation, and higher-fidelity decision-making for multi-modal operations.

As Joby takes a step further, he is more active in building infrastructure. In January this year alone, it signed several cooperation agreements to promote the construction of air mobility-related infrastructure. For example, on January 17, it will work with partners to build power infrastructure in New York and Southern California, and on January 23, it will work with Helo Holdings, Inc. to install the first air taxi charger in New York City.

While domestic eVTOL companies don't necessarily need to follow the Joby-like route, it's clear that infrastructure improvement is a particularly important step at this time.

According to the previous statistics of the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, in 2023 alone, the leading domestic eVTOL companies have achieved hundreds of orders signed. However, the challenge is that the external infrastructure has yet to be improved.

Ma Tianqi, an industrial industry analyst at the Toubao Research Institute, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that in order to achieve the rapid development of eVTOL in China, it still faces challenges in technology, regulation and market demand.

Specifically, eVTOL technology is still in the early stages of development, and there are still challenges in terms of safety, range, and charging infrastructure. Regulatory policies include aviation safety regulation, flight rules, airspace management, etc. At present, the airworthiness certification of Wofei AE200, Volant AE25, E20, Fengfei Kairuiou and other products has been opened, but it still needs time to gradually improve.

In addition, consumer acceptance of this new type of transportation will take time to develop, and consumers will consider the issue of economics, i.e., weigh the time cost of eVTOL reduction against the operating cost.

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