Chinese flying taxi maker Ehang is selling its EH216-S electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao marketplace, weeks before the Nasdaq-listed company makes the autonomous passenger-carrying aircraft available in overseas markets. Based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, EHang has put its EH216-S for sale at a unit price of CNY2.39 million. In February, EHang announced that the EH216-S would be sold at a suggested retail price of USD410,000 outside China from April 1. The ambitious domestic and international marketing campaigns show EHang’s confidence in generating strong market demand, months after its self-developed EH216-S became the world’s first recipient of a Type Certificate and Standard Airworthiness Certificate for pilotless eVTOLs. Those certifications were issued last October and December, respectively, by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). “This significant achievement has had a profound impact on our business, as it has sparked a surge in demand for our remarkable EH216-S,” EHang Founder, Chairman and CEO Hu Huazhi said, as the company released its latest financial results.
EHang reported fourth-quarter revenue of CNY56.6 million, a 260.9% jump from CNY15.7 million in the same period in 2022, on the back of an increase in orders for its EH216-series products. Total 2023 revenue reached CNY117.4 million, up 165% from CNY44.3 million the previous year. Sales and deliveries of the company’s EH216-series products totaled 52 units last year, compared with 21 in 2022. After completing aircraft certification, EHang conducted EH216-S production under the supervision of CAAC representatives at the company’s factory in Yunfu, a city in Guangdong. The firm began deliveries of certified aircraft to customers in the December quarter. The EH216-S, which was first announced in February 2018, has completed over 42,000 successful test flights in more than 14 countries. The two-passenger aircraft has a top speed of 130-kilometers per hour, a cruising speed of 100 km/h and a maximum altitude of 3,000 meters. It has a range of 30 km and a flight time of 25 minutes. It is built with 16 propellers, recharges its batteries in 120 minutes, and provides a maximum payload of 220 kilograms. The luggage boot can accommodate a suitcase. The EH216-S is suitable for applications such as air taxi services, aerial tourism, airport shuttles and cross-island transport.
The company earlier this month signed a UAM cooperation agreement with the municipal government of Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu province, covering an order of 100 EH216-S units. Last October, EHang entered into a strategic cooperation deal with the municipal government of Hefei, capital of Anhui province, for joint development of a low-altitude economy ecosystem, with USD100 million in extended support that can be used to facilitate a minimum order of 100 EH216-series passenger drones. About 20 provinces across the country have prioritized the development of the low-altitude economy this year, according to Ehang, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
