Following the sale of rockets and satellites, the Taobao live broadcast room once again completed hard-core technology transactions. Last week, the "Make a Friend" Taobao live broadcast room successfully sold an EHang EH216-S priced at 2.39 million yuan and a limited-time discount price of 1.99 million yuan "Air taxis" have created a precedent for the first transaction of unmanned manned aircraft since the birth of e-commerce platforms.

The first aircraft to receive type approval

At present, there are two models on the shelves of the store, of which EHang EH216-S is in pre-sale status, with a price of 2.39 million yuan; EHang Intelligent VT-30, the price of this product is 9,999,999 yuan. The VT-30 has a composite wing design with a design range of 300 kilometers and a design endurance of 100 minutes.

The EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft can carry two people, is 6.05 meters long, 5.73 meters wide and 1.93 meters high, and consists of 16 propellers. It is worth mentioning that the longest mileage of a single flight is 30 kilometers in a straight line in the air, and the maximum flight speed can reach 130 kilometers per hour, which can be effectively used flexibly in multiple scenarios such as commuting, air first aid, and disaster relief.

Both aircraft are eVTOLs, the full name of "electric vertical take-off and lowering aircraft", also known as "flying cars", which is more popularly understood as an electrified aircraft that can take off and land vertically without a runway, and has rich application scenarios in the future air mobility industry. In 2023, the product will be officially issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, becoming the world's first manned unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to obtain the type certificate.

Hu Huazhi, Founder, Chairman and CEO of EHang, said, "With the introduction of a number of supporting policies for the low-altitude economy, one of the country's strategic emerging industries, EHang and the unmanned aircraft industry have ushered in tremendous development opportunities. Today, we are once again setting a new milestone in the field of driverless manned eVTOL with the industry's first airworthiness certificate and the start of delivery of the certified EH216-S to our customers. In the near future, we will produce more and more aircraft off the assembly line and gradually fulfill the backlog to serve more customers and passengers, and accelerate the development of urban air mobility. ”

I can't go if I want to

According to the Taobao store page, although the "air taxi" does not require a driver, the aircraft flies according to the pre-set route to achieve point-to-point flight in the air, avoid road congestion, improve travel efficiency, and effectively avoid safety accidents caused by human error; However, in the actual operation process, "the take-off and landing points and routes are jointly formulated by EHang and the local civil aviation authorities to ensure reliable communication, and the routes will not conflict with other flight routes, and there are no fixed obstacles blocking the routes".

This also means that even if users buy "air taxis", they will not be able to realize their desire to go and fly wherever they want.

On December 28, 2023, EHang announced that the first batch of EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft that have completed airworthiness certification have completed their first commercial flight demonstrations in Guangzhou and Hefei, marking that EH216-S will carry out regular commercial flights in local scenic spots.

In Guangzhou, the first EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft that obtained the world's first standard airworthiness certificate has been delivered to Guangzhou Yitong Intelligent Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., an aviation intelligent technology company under Guangzhou Development District Transportation Investment Group, and is the first to be put into operation in Jiulong Lake. More flight routes and operation points for air sightseeing and logistics applications are also being planned.

This information also shows that the current more realistic application scenarios of "air taxis" are tourism, sightseeing and other fields.

The low-altitude economy is becoming a hot track

In addition to EHang, in January 2023, Xpeng Motors and Geely Technology both announced significant progress in their flying car projects. Xpeng Huitian's official WeChat account announced that the two-seater manned flying car independently developed by Xpeng Huitian, the Voyager X2, has officially obtained the concession flight certificate issued by the Central and Southern Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China; Geely Technology Group said that Geely Technology Wofei Changkong successfully completed the first flight of the Year of the Rabbit, and this flight also marks a new stage of the AE200X01 series flight test verification work.

Among them, AE200 is a 5-seat pure electric power vertical take-off and landing manned aircraft (flying car) independently developed by Wofei Changkong. Aiming at urban circles and intercity travel scenarios, it has the characteristics of high performance, high safety and high comfort, meets the diversified travel needs of urban agglomerations/intercities, and has rich use expansion capabilities.

Not only are companies competing for opportunities on this track, but government policies are also being introduced. This year's government work report proposes to actively cultivate emerging industries and future industries, which talks about consolidating and expanding the leading advantages of industries such as intelligent networked new energy vehicles, and actively building new growth engines such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy.

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, also put forward suggestions to accelerate the development of low-altitude economy. He Xiaopeng pointed out that the current general aviation operation system has many restrictions and cumbersome processes, which cannot meet the needs of the large-scale application of a new generation of flying cars. In addition, the research and development of flying cars is technically difficult, a number of key technologies need to be broken through urgently, and related infrastructure construction also needs to be supplemented.

Jingtai Discussion | How far is the air taxi?

In foreign countries, due to the relatively mature low-altitude operation, the government's policy support for eVTOL to participate in urban air mobility operation is relatively advanced. For example, the United States has set up a ministerial group to take the lead in coordinating the strength of the whole industry chain to form a national development strategy for urban air mobility. The European Union has proposed the Drone Strategy 2.0, proposing that by 2030, many drone services, including air traffic services, will become part of European life.

In China, the practice of unmanned aerial vehicles still starts with cargo. The development path of unmanned aviation mentioned in the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Civil Unmanned Aviation" is based on the operational risk planning of low and then high, cargo first and then passengers, general use before transportation, isolation before integration. Such a development path of unmanned aviation before cargo and passengers is also related to the challenges that unmanned aviation still faces in terms of regulations and standards, airspace resources, and related supporting facilities.

In addition, in order to carry out urban air mobility operations, it is also necessary to plan specific routes, equip alternate landing points, as well as eVTOL aircraft charging points, safety and security service networks, etc., and these supporting facilities and professional operators also need to be gradually established.

In this regard, the "Civil Unmanned Aviation Development Roadmap V1.0" issued by the Civil Aviation Administration mentioned that the goal is to achieve hierarchical and zonal operation of low-altitude isolated airspace in 2025; By 2035, the take-off and landing fields of hub-type large-scale unmanned aerial vehicles with transfer capabilities 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.