EHang has announced the launch of its urban air mobility services with recently disclosed strategic partner Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Limited. The new services, which will be conducted firstly on a trial basis, include an aerial sightseeing program and aerial media shows. Both of these services will be deployed in the Greenland Hong Kong Forest Lake project located in Zhaoqing, a popular tour destination city in Guangdong, China. EHang’s press release stated that they intend to work jointly with Greenland Hong Kong over time to offer aerial tourism services using EH216 AAVs in additional cities.

The first stage of the partnership is a base for EH216 operations in Forest Lake, which will be independently run by EHang. This base will serve as the launch point for aerial sightseeing services to passengers. Forest Lake is located close to the new Zhaoqing-Pearl River Delta-Hub Airport, still under construction. The area offers abundant tourism attractions, including 7 natural lakes and wetlands covering 3 million square meters.

EHang claims that aerial sightseeing has strong demand and huge market potential relative to urban aerial mobility. In early 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Civil Aviation Administration jointly issued “Suggestions on Promoting the Integrated Development of Transportation and Tourism”. This directive supported the development of aerial sightseeing by encouraging key tourist cities and eligible scenic spots to carry out pilot programs for civil aviation tourism as well as to open low-altitude flight routes. Low-altitude tourism in China could reach 4.2 billion passengers in coming years, leading to a market size of RMB58.5 billion, according to forecasts from the China Air Transport Association.

Why it’s important: EHang’s quoted advantages of their EH216 autonomous aerial vehicles when compared to conventional single-propeller helicopters include higher safety levels, lower noise levels, lower costs, and zero emissions during operation. If these advantages are supplanted by operational data that supports their validity, vehicles such as EH216 AAVs have the potential to become more widely used for low-altitude aerial sightseeing applications and more in the near future.

Ghuangzhou, China based EHANG released a video of some of their most notable passengers during flight demonstrations of the EHANG 184 air taxi during 2018. Notable persons include FACC executives, VC Fund Managers, the Mayor of Ghuangzhou, and others.

The release of this video comes after the company announced on November that it will be developing an all-electric medium to long range aircraft that is capable of autonomous electric flight (the EH 580) and an all-electric cargo drone (the FlyShark 200) at the Zhuhai airshow.

Other notable achievements of one of the leading Chinese eVTOL manufacturers include the completion of demonstration flights in other test locales, not just Ghuangzhou – Amsterdam, Doha, and Mattersburg, Austria were among the other cities that hosted demonstration flights.

While the EHANG 184 Autonomous Air Vehicle (AAV) is not yet in a commercially operational state, EHANG is well versed in addressing some of the other challenges that involve low-altitude airspace and flight operations, such as navigating complex airspace in crowded, urban environments. The company has extensive experience with drone operations, and has agreements in place for drone delivery services in Ghuangzhou, China in partnership with Yonghui Group, a retailer. The company regularly performs “drone light shows” of which 78 were completed last year in 42 different cities.

Why it’s important: EHANG’s 2018 recap was not transformative, but rather contained validations of the progress of the company that many were following closely throughout 2018. Of note, however, is the very conscious effort the company is making to demonstrate that their AAV is safe, requires no special skills to operate, and is exciting to fly. The numerous public demonstration flights that are detailed in their recap video attest to the level of approval that many of the executives, press, and EHANG employees have when flying in the AAV. Keep a watch on EHANG in 2019 as they progress through the certification of the AAV with the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC).

Learn more about the EHANG 184 AAV