EHang won the first production license in the global eVTOL industry, ushering in the first year of commercialization of the low-altitude economy

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On April 7, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially issued the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system production certificate (PC) to EHang in Guangzhou, which is the first production license in the global eVTOL industry. Prior to this, EHang EH216-S has obtained the Type Certificate (TC) (Design License) and the Standard Airworthiness Certificate (AC) (Airworthiness License). Therefore, EHang's collection of three certificates not only means that it can carry out large-scale commercial production, but more importantly, it also opens up the large-scale commercialization of low-altitude economic industries in mainland China.

Low-altitude economic policies have been intensively introduced

In December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed to create emerging industries such as a "low-altitude economy". Subsequently, since the beginning of the year, a series of low-altitude economic policies have been released, and the low-altitude economic index has risen by nearly 50% under the policy dividend, and the market has maintained an optimistic expectation that the low-altitude economy will be the second trillion market after new energy.

First of all, on January 1 this year, the "Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" came into force. The regulations make detailed provisions on the management of civil unmanned aerial vehicles and their controllers, the management of airspace and flight activities, supervision and management, and emergency response, which indicates that the mainland's low-altitude economy has begun to prepare for landing.

Immediately more important is the 2024 government work report for the first time mentioned the low-altitude economy, the report clearly pointed out that it is necessary to actively build new growth engines such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy. And it was mentioned that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of low-altitude flight infrastructure, promote the standardized development of the low-altitude flight service market, and encourage and support enterprises to carry out technological innovation and product research and development in the field of low-altitude economy. Under the leadership of the general policy, local governments have responded, and more than 20 provinces have written low-altitude economy, general aviation and other related content into their respective government work reports.

On March 27, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the "General Aviation Equipment Innovation Application Implementation Plan (2024-2030)", which proposes that by 2027, the general aviation public service equipment system will be basically perfected, and more than 20 typical application demonstrations will be formed. In addition, it is also clearly proposed that by 2030, general aviation will be fully integrated into all fields of people's production and life, forming a trillion-level market scale. The plan puts forward a clear plan for the future development of the mainland's low-altitude economy, and also confirms that in terms of market size, the low-altitude economy is comparable to the next new energy.

On March 29, Shang Kejia, deputy director of the Transportation Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a press conference that the Civil Aviation Administration of China will accelerate the introduction of industry management regulations in the next stage, study and introduce guidelines for the construction of general airport model rooms, and guide local governments to build low-cost and simple general airports according to local conditions. At the same time, the number of general airport planning and layout will be further increased.

On April 4, the National Data Bureau said that it would study and draft the "Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Development of Smart Cities and Promoting the Digital Transformation of Cities", which includes exploring the development of digital low-altitude infrastructure.

The release of the above two news means that it has come to the final stage before the landing of the low-altitude economy.

There are nearly 60,000 low-altitude economy-related enterprises, and the overall industrial scale is expected to exceed one trillion yuan in 2026

According to the "Research Report on China's Low-altitude Economic Development (2024)" released by CCID Consulting, the scale of China's low-altitude economy will reach 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of 33.8%. Among them, the scale of the civil drone industry was 117.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%, the scale of the industrial drone industry was 76.68 billion yuan, and the scale of the eVTOL industry reached 980 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 77.3%. It is worth noting that although the current industrial scale of eVTOL is still small compared to drones, it will perform the most in 2023, in addition to the ultra-high year-on-year growth rate, the number of investment and financing events in the eVTOL industry is also the largest, accounting for 85.8% of the total number. According to CCID, the eVTOL industry will maintain a rapid growth trend, and the overall industrial scale will reach 9.5 billion yuan by 2026.

At present, the mainland has a relatively perfect foundation in the field of low-altitude economy, in addition to policy dividends and capital favor, the number of enterprises participating in the low-altitude economy on the mainland has also reached a certain scale. According to CCID data, as of February 2024, there are more than 57,000 enterprises in China's low-altitude economic field, and the number of newly established enterprises in the past five years has reached nearly 21,000. If the low-altitude economy is compared with new energy vehicles, taking the time period of commercial development of new energy vehicles as an example, the average annual growth rate of the number of new energy vehicle-related enterprises from 2015 to 2017 is about 40%. At this stage, the low-altitude economy has a more favorable environment than the original new energy vehicles, so with the gradual implementation of the commercialization of the low-altitude economy, the growth rate of the number of enterprises is expected to exceed 40%. Overall, the growth rate of the low-altitude economic market will continue to expand, and CCID also said that by 2026, the scale of the low-altitude economy is expected to exceed one trillion yuan, reaching 1,064.46 billion yuan.

In the initial stage of commercialization, low-altitude infrastructure still needs to be paid attention to

In the whole industrial chain of low-altitude economy, it mainly includes four modules: low-altitude infrastructure, low-altitude aircraft manufacturing, low-altitude operation services and low-altitude flight support. In the whole process of industrial development in the future, low-altitude infrastructure is the foundation and important support for the development of the industry.

According to the classification of the "Research Report on China's Low-altitude Economic Development (2024)", low-altitude infrastructure is mainly divided into two categories, one is general aviation airport facilities and equipment, and the other is low-altitude new infrastructure. Among them, the new low-altitude infrastructure involves networks, data, drone take-off and landing sites, new energy foundations, and supervision. In the previously mentioned "Implementation Plan for the Innovative Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)", the development plan of the Civil Aviation Administration and the development plan of the National Data Bureau to explore the development of digital low-altitude infrastructure, the basic construction of the low-altitude economy is mentioned first. Therefore, whether it is from the industry structure or policy instructions, low-altitude infrastructure still needs to be paid attention to. In this regard, the open source securities research report said that the air traffic control system and other supporting infrastructure is an important support for the healthy development of the low-altitude industry, and is expected to benefit from the trillion-dollar blue ocean market of the low-altitude economy first.

In addition, according to the research report of CITIC Securities, synaesthesia integration is expected to become the key direction of low-altitude infrastructure in the future. Synaesthesia integration represents the integration of communication and sensing, and is one of the important innovation directions of 5G-A. CITIC Securities Research Report believes that synaesthesia integration is expected to solve the problem of insufficient monitoring and control in low-altitude flight, and is a relatively effective and feasible solution. It is also recommended to pay attention to the antenna, filter and RF industry chain in operators, main equipment manufacturers, smart light pole suppliers and base station components under the demand for 5G-A base station transformation and new construction. (The article only represents the author's personal views and is not intended as investment advice) (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author|Gu Shuo, editor|Liu Yangxue)