At the AirTaxi World Congress event in San Francisco, #EHang board member Conor Yang gave a very different vision of the future of #advancedairmobility from other panelists.
Type certification of the EH216 autonomous air vehicle (AAV) is imminent, he said, and the company will move swiftly to scale up its plans for mass transportation – targeting, first, 2,000 plus tourist site operations in China, before planning export of the EHang AAM eco-system to archipelago-based countries in Asia. These countries will be able to streamline introduction of AAV services by aligning their certification processes with that of the CAAC.
In China, the AAVs will fly along pre-determined (by the military) air corridors and be managed by city-based operational centres which will have geo-fencing and UTM systems integrated.
EHang’s cost structure was explained – and it is highly competitive. The company’s annual operating costs are around USD50 million, up to eight times less than its European and US competitors, and each EH216 costs around USD300,000 though this will come down once mass production starts. Ticket prices will therefore be comparatively low, therefore, and there will be no need to factor in piloting costs.
Type certification will have taken 30 months when it is complete and the company has been awarded 300 patents with another 300 patents pending.