On April 7, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system production license to EHang, which is the first production license in the global eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) industry. This means that EHang's EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft model will enter a larger-scale mass production stage.
As a new type of transportation, eVTOL has the advantages of low noise, zero emission, high efficiency, etc., and can achieve helicopter-like vertical take-off and landing without the need for a runway, and is regarded as one of the important carriers of low-altitude economy.
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2023 proposed to build a number of strategic emerging industries such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy. This year, the "low-altitude economy" was written into the government work report, and it was clear that this "new growth engine" was actively created.
In the eyes of the industry, China's low-altitude economy has broad prospects. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments recently jointly issued the "General Aviation Equipment Innovation and Application Implementation Plan (2024~2030)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") proposed that by 2030, the new model of general aviation industry development characterized by high-end, intelligent and green will be basically established, and general aviation equipment will be fully integrated into all fields of people's production and life, becoming a strong driving force for low-altitude economic growth and forming a trillion-level market scale.
EHang EH216-S is currently limited in its application scenarios
EHang's EH216-S is an unmanned eVTOL, the first eVTOL aircraft to receive the Type Certificate ("TC") from the Civil Aviation Administration of China ("CAAC"), and the world's first unmanned manned aircraft type certification.
Hu Huazhi, Chairman of EHang, said at the certification ceremony that the production license is an important milestone for the eVTOL product to enter the large-scale production stage, and it is also a key step for the company to promote commercial operation. In the future, production and delivery will be gradually expanded to meet the growing market demand.
He Tianxing, vice president of EHang, said in an interview with Yicai that EHang's current factory production line in Yunfu has an annual production capacity of 600 flights, and will officially start large-scale mass production after obtaining the production license.
Aircraft TC airworthiness certification is the premise to ensure the safety of aircraft and allow them to enter the market for commercial operation.
He Tianxing said that after obtaining the TC certificate and production license, the company will give priority to carrying out normalized operations in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei, which have deployed operation points, and the first stage will take low-altitude tours and city sightseeing as the entry point, and gradually develop to low-altitude commuting and emergency rescue scenarios, and finally realize unmanned normalized low-altitude urban travel, that is, to truly realize "air taxis".
The reason why the application scenario of the first stage is mainly cultural tourism is not unrelated to the relevant operation restrictions when EH216-S obtains the type certificate.
According to EHang's EH216-S Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) disclosed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the operational restrictions on unmanned aircraft systems 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 prohibiting water operations, including takeoff, landing and forced landing.
This means that the EH216-S can only fly over sparsely populated areas at the moment, and cannot fly too far.
In this regard, He Tianxing told reporters that based on the principle of "risk progression", in order to avoid the emergence of sudden safety in various scenarios in the early stage of formal commercial operation, after fully considering the safe operation and responsible attitude to the public, as well as referring to the principle of reasonable restrictions and stage liberalization of traditional new aircraft, the company and the Civil Aviation Administration reached the first stage of operation restrictions, "In the future, these operation restrictions will be gradually relaxed according to the stage of our operation, and finally achieve fully unmanned commercial operation in the city." ”
The reporter learned that EHang is currently working with the Civil Aviation Administration and other regulatory units to formulate a low-altitude unmanned flight operation standard system, and is also working with local governments to promote the construction of supporting infrastructure and digital management platforms to achieve large-scale flight and large-scale operation after large-scale mass production, and accelerate the construction of low-altitude economic model cities in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei, Wuhan and other places, and establish a benchmark application scenario for low-altitude economic industry.
Capital poured into the eVTOL market
EHang is not the only company producing eVTOL aircraft. According to the reporter's understanding, at present, a number of domestic companies are applying for TC certificates for their own research and development of eVTOL, some are freight versions, and some are manned.
For example, Fengfei Aviation Technology's V2000CG unmanned aircraft system was awarded the Type Certificate (TC) by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on March 22, becoming the world's first cargo version of the eVTOL aircraft above the tonnage level awarded TC; Volant Aviation's VE25-100 manned passenger eVTOL has also been accepted by the East China Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China for TC application; in January this year, the East China Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China accepted the TC application for the M1B type (that is, the M1 cargo eVTOL) independently developed by Yufeng Future。
EHang and all three companies are early entrants to the eVTOL track, and unlike other aircraft manufacturers, most eVTOL manufacturers use venture capital to maintain R&D and operations.
According to the reporter's understanding, since the beginning of 2021, eVTOL investment has ushered in a small peak, including a high investment of 500 million US dollars. As the former niche track enters the "spotlight" of the capital market, eVTOL has also begun to attract more and more attention from local governments and enterprises.
In China, in addition to technology companies that entered the eVTOL track earlier such as EHang Intelligence and Fengfei Aviation Technology, many automakers, including Xpeng and Geely, have also begun to enter the eVTOL market. Among them, Xpeng Huitian completed a Series A financing of US$500 million in October 2022, and received additional investment from Star Capital in June 2023, with a valuation of US$1 billion. Geely's Wofei Changkong completed a round of financing of more than 100 million yuan in June 2023. At the end of March this year, Shi Technology also completed a round of exclusive strategic financing of 20 million US dollars, planning to create an "air taxi" application scenario in the Middle East.
"After the two sessions this year, we clearly felt the attention of all sectors of society to the low-altitude economy and eVTOL, and in March, we received more than 500 first- and second-tier investors and dozens of local governments. A relevant person from Volant Aviation told reporters.
Luo Liangsheng, vice president of the Guangdong UAV Industry Association, told reporters that more unmanned aircraft manufacturers have begun to apply for airworthiness certification for different types of aircraft.
In fact, in addition to the host manufacturers, the low-altitude economy also needs more diverse subjects to participate together. Previously, Zhang Yi, president of eVTOL operator Heli Intelligence, said in an interview with Yicai that he looked forward to more policy support for the operation side in the future. He Tonglin, a first-level researcher of the Guangzhou Airport Committee, told reporters that at present, Guangzhou is preparing for commercial flights, and is expected to issue relevant qualification certifications for eVTOL operators in the second to third quarters of this year.
How far is the low-altitude economic outbreak
The increased attention of capital and local governments to eVTOL is not unrelated to the fact that the low-altitude economy has been written into the government work report at this year's two sessions. In China, the low-altitude economy has not only been written into the government work report, but also defined as one of the strategic emerging industries. The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2023 proposed: "Create a number of strategic emerging industries such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy." ”
According to incomplete statistics, 16 provinces have written the "low-altitude economy" into the government work report in 2023.
Han Jun, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that the low-altitude economy, as a strategic emerging industry, has a very broad space for development. According to the calculations of some research units, the scale of the mainland's low-altitude economy will exceed 500 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan in 2030.
From the perspective of the industry, the low-altitude economy covers aircraft R & D and manufacturing, low-altitude flight infrastructure construction and operation, low-altitude operation services, low-altitude flight support and other industries, among them, eVTOL aircraft is one of the important carriers of the low-altitude economy, and many local governments have also begun to take eVTOL as an entry point to seek new economic growth points.
Recently, EHang signed an agreement with the Wuxi Municipal Transportation Bureau to jointly build EHang's eVTOL low-altitude industrial base and operation headquarters project in Wuxi, and the Hefei Municipal Government has also reached a strategic cooperation plan with EHang for a low-altitude economy to provide US$100 million in support. In addition, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou have successively promoted eVTOL demonstration flights.
Liu Libo, executive secretary general of the South China Low-altitude Economic Committee of the China Communications Association, told the first financial that the low-altitude economy should be adapted to local conditions and planned. The development of low-altitude economy requires overall planning in combination with local resource endowments such as mountains and rivers, industrial base, and capital situation. The key to verifying the success of the low-altitude economy depends on whether the plan is well written, whether there are professional organizations to provide systematic policy supporting services, and whether aircraft manufacturers, service companies, ecological enterprises, and financial enterprises can be allowed to do the ecological implementation of the overall economic environment for the local area.
Whether at home or abroad, the final application scenario of eVTOL is mainly aimed at urban air mobility, but from the current civil aviation regulatory framework and infrastructure support, there is still a long way to go to realize the application scenario of "air taxi" for everyone.
The first is the airspace application. "With the gradual advancement of the pilot of low-altitude opening, the time for the approval of the application route has been shortened than before, and many local governments are also actively applying for the opening of low-altitude airspace. Gao Yuanyang, director of the General Aviation Industry Research Center of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told reporters, but it will take time for such a situation to spread throughout the country, and the airspace management regulations of the People's Republic of China that are soliciting opinions will classify the airspace management of cities across the country, and there will be laws to follow in different cities.
As the country's first special regulation on the promotion of low-altitude economic industry, the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Low-altitude Economic Industry Promotion Regulations" on the low-altitude airspace planning and overall use of resources, low-altitude flight service management, low-altitude flight activities application and other aspects of the provisions.
The second is infrastructure support. Although the take-off and landing of eVTOL aircraft does not require a long runway, it also requires fixed take-off and landing points, just like the take-off and landing points of helicopters.
In this regard, the Civil Aviation Administration issued the "Civil Unmanned Aviation Development Roadmap V1.0" mentioned that the goal is to achieve hierarchical and zonal operation of low-altitude isolated airspace by 2025, and by 2035, the hub-type large-scale unmanned aircraft take-off and landing field with transfer capacity will be put into use, and the operation of manned/unmanned aerial vehicles will be deeply integrated to form a complex route network. This means that it will be at least a decade before the large-scale commercial application of eVTOL aircraft in the field of urban air mobility. The recently announced Implementation Plan brings forward the timeline for the commercialization of eVTOL passenger transport by five years.
Liu Libo said that China's openness in the field of low-altitude economy is at the forefront of the world, but there is still a lack of producer service institutions to integrate in this field, and there is also a lack of platform-based diversion enterprises. How to break the vested interest relationship, so that the policy to support the development of the low-altitude economy is implemented and benefit the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, which has become an important issue to promote the development of the low-altitude economy in the future.
(This article is from Yicai)
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