APAC UAM Report YE2021
Gain a deeper understanding of the progress that is being made across the Asia Pacific with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.
Gain a deeper understanding of the progress that is being made across the Asia Pacific with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH EHANG<br />
In EHang’s perspective, which areas would<br />
first have a large-scale application of eVTOL?<br />
EVTOL has a wide range of applications, covering areas like<br />
manned transportation, tourism, logistics, medical rescue, fire<br />
emergency and many more. Many organizations around the world<br />
are constantly exploring the commercial application of eVTOLs. As<br />
a pioneer in the urban air mobility (<strong>UAM</strong>) industry, EHang manned<br />
eVTOLs have completed extensive flight tests under various<br />
scenarios such as manned transportation, air tourism, air logistics,<br />
medical emergency response, fire rescue and so on.<br />
In a variety of application scenarios, eVTOL’s advantage in the field<br />
of aerial tourism is the most obvious.<br />
scenic sport suitable for low-altitude aerial tourism accounted for<br />
50% ofthe total tourist - around 420 million. The low-altitude aerial<br />
market is expected to be worth around 58.5 billion yuan annually.<br />
In terms of policy, the air tour industry has obtained policy support. As<br />
early as 2017, the Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Administration<br />
of China and other ministries jointly issued the “Opinions on Promoting<br />
the Integrated Development of Transport and Tourism”. It emphasized<br />
“supporting the development of low-altitude tourism, encouraging the<br />
development of air tourism by-products such as aerial sightseeing,<br />
aerial experience and aerial sports”. The Ministry of Culture and<br />
Tourism issued “The 14th Five-year Plan for Cultural and Tourism<br />
Development” in June 2021. The Plan requires the development of<br />
low-altitude and inland river tourism.<br />
The scale of the air tour market is enormous. Many scenic areas<br />
began to adopt low-altitude tour projects. China Air Transport<br />
Association estimated that in 2020, the number of tourists in China’s<br />
top 100 tourist attractions reached 834 million, of which the natural<br />
EHang’s autonomous aerial vehicles have a significant cost advantage<br />
over helicopters for aerial tours. Compared with the traditional singlerotor<br />
helicopter, the multi-rotor and purely electric-powered EHang<br />
autonomous aerial vehicle is flexible, attractive, occupies a smaller<br />
space, and has strong mobility. Moreover, it can turn fixed-point highfrequency<br />
automation and clustered schedule flight according to<br />
preset routes into reality. This is aligned with the future trend of having<br />
automation and improving the sightseeing experience for scenic<br />
areas. In addition, EHang’s aircraft use autonomous technology to<br />
reduce the cost of pilot training and salary expenses which can greatly<br />
reduce operational costs and improve operating efficiency.<br />
EHang plans to continue to accumulate flight data and operational<br />
experience through operating in aerial sightseeing and promoting<br />
16 |YE 2021 ASIA-PACIFIC <strong>UAM</strong> REPORT
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