According to relevant media reports, on April 7, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued a production license for EHang's EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system in Guangzhou. Last year, the EH216-S has successfully obtained the type certificate and standard airworthiness certificate. The production license obtained this time marks that the EH216-S has become the world's first manned unmanned eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) model to obtain the "three major passes" for airworthiness, thus obtaining mass production qualifications and laying a solid foundation for large-scale commercial operation in the future.
According to data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the mainland's low-altitude economic market is expected to reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025, and this figure is expected to grow to 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.
This year, the "low-altitude economy" was written into the government work report for the first time, and with the continuous release and improvement of policies, the eVTOL aircraft industry, a key carrier of the low-altitude economy, will usher in sustainable development.
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Overview of the eVTOL industry
The concept of eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) was first proposed by NASA in 2009 in an animated video. In the same year, Joby, a pioneer in eVTOL, was founded.
In addition, eVTOLs began to gain traction around the world with Uber's Uber Elevate urban air taxi program in 2016.
The main features of eVTOL commonly referred to in the industry include the use of multi-rotor, composite wing or tiltrotor configuration, which can carry 4-5 passengers, fly at a speed between 200-350 km/h, have a range of 150-300 km, and carry a load of 300-500 kg.
In terms of structure, the eVTOL aircraft is mainly composed of the body subsystem, navigation communication and flight control subsystem, power subsystem and energy subsystem.
Compared with drones, eVTOLs can not only carry people, but also realize remote control and scheduling operations. In addition, eVTOLs can perform more complex tasks and can have payloads of up to 500Kg, far exceeding industrial drones (over 100Kg) and consumer drones (less than 50Kg).
Depending on the propulsion power mode, eVTOLs can be divided into four types: multi-rotor, combined lift and cruise, tiltrotor/airfoil, and tilt-duct.
In terms of application fields, the initial eVTOL can first be applied to the cargo field, as a military and civilian large-scale vertical take-off and landing UAV, and then further applied to the field of manned transportation after reaching a high level of safety and obtaining airworthiness certification.
eVTOL industry chain combing
The eVTOL ecosystem includes manufacturing, operations, infrastructure construction, B-end and C-end customers, and regulators.
At present, the industrial chain has a good foundation, and the upstream components mainly include three-electric technology, lightweight materials, etc. Among them, the battery needs to meet the requirements of high energy density, high rate performance and light weight, and the body material is also pursuing light weight, carbon fiber is the ideal choice. The midstream aircraft manufacturing and downstream operation services overlap with the traditional aviation industry chain, including aircraft, air traffic control systems, flight simulation, low-altitude operations and other fields.
The core value of eVTOL includes flight control system, avionics and power system.
In terms of power systems, distributed propulsion systems are widely adopted, and the airframe manufacturing technology is quite mature and the technical barriers are relatively low. Due to the relatively large size of eVTOL, most of its main suppliers are from the general aviation sector.
It is worth noting that eVTOL still faces a series of technical challenges, including obstacle avoidance technology, intelligent driving technology, route design, new energy battery technology, and electric drive technology.
eVTOL市场竞争格局和龙头梳理
At present, many global manufacturers are accelerating the deployment of eVTOL, including traditional aviation giants, well-known automobile companies and emerging eVTOL startups. Traditional aviation giants such as Boeing, Airbus and AVIC have already ventured into eVTOL development, while car companies such as Geely, Audi, Toyota and Xpeng have also entered the market.
From the perspective of upstream and downstream manufacturers in the industrial chain, the battery link includes CATL, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Azure Lithium Core, etc., and the fuselage material manufacturers include Guangwei Composites, Changyuan Donggu, Wolong Electric Drive, Antai Technology, Yingliu Co., Ltd., etc. The main manufacturers of air traffic control are RICE Information, Sichuan Jiuzhou, etc., the main operating manufacturers are CITIC Haizhi, and the main participants in simulation training are Haite High-tech.
The main manufacturers of the whole machine layout are EHang Intelligence, Fengfei Airlines, Xiaopeng Motors, Wanfeng Aowei, Sunward Intelligence, Zhongzhi Co., Ltd. and Shangluo Electronics.
EHang is the world's leading eVTOL company and has been breaking industry records since its inception in 2014. In 2016, the company released the world's first manned-level autonomous aerial vehicle, which attracted wide attention in the industry. On December 12, 2019, EHang became the world's first listed urban air mobility company on NASDAQ. In October 2023, EHang's EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system received the Type Certificate of Conformity (TC) issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which is also the world's first eVTOL conformity certification.
In February 2024, Shengshilong, independently developed by Fengfei Airlines, successfully completed the first demonstration flight of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai eVTOL cross-sea and cross-city route.
As the aviation industry carrier of Geely Group, the self-developed AE200 5-6 seat eVTOL aircraft is an innovative manned aircraft with pure electric drive, vertical take-off and landing and fixed-wing level flight capabilities. Wofei Changkong signed a purchase agreement with Hualong Airlines for 100 AE200s. #飞行汽车##飞行器##财经##航空航天##新质生产力##低空经济#
Wanfeng Aowei's aircraft business orders are full, especially diamond aircraft orders continue to grow. Wanfeng Diamond owns all the property rights of 18 models, including trainer aircraft, private consumption aircraft, special-purpose MPP aircraft and other fields, and includes hybrid and pure electric general aviation fixed-wing aircraft and other innovative products. Its electric aircraft, the eDA40, successfully made its maiden flight and is expected to obtain the relevant certificates in 2024.
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