The field of eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) is booming again. Recently, EHang Intelligent 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. It said that this marks the EH216-S’s success in local scenic spots. Regular air commercial flights will be carried out.
Shenzhen, Hefei, Huangpu District of Guangzhou, etc. have issued eVTOL-related policies to accelerate the implementation of eVTOL. At the same time, Guangzhou Development Zone Investment Group and Guangzhou Industrial Investment Capital jointly established the Guangzhou Development Zone Low-altitude Industry Venture Capital Fund, with a target fund size of 10 billion yuan.
From the perspective of the primary market, according to data from Xingkuang, a financial association, looking back at the whole year of 2023, a total of 8 eVTOL companies have received financing, and the cumulative public financing amount exceeds hundreds of millions of yuan.
Looking forward to 2024, as the eVTOL field welcomes policies and the market blossoms, how long will it take for the vision of “air taxis” and “flying cars” to truly become a reality? What are its commercial prospects? How will the future blueprint be drawn?
Policies from many places support low-level economy
In February 2021, the concept of “low-altitude economy” was mentioned for the first time from the national strategic level. The “National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Network Planning Outline” proposes to “build a rapid air transportation network within the urban agglomeration” and “develop the low-altitude economy.”
Later, the concept of “eVTOL” was increasingly mentioned by officials. Among them, in October 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the “Green Aviation Manufacturing Development Outline (2023-2035)”, proposing that electric general aviation aircraft will be put into commercial application by 2025, eVTOL will be implemented on a pilot basis, and a complete aviation industry will be completed by 2035. With the establishment of a green aviation manufacturing system, new energy aircraft have become the mainstream of development.
The recently held Central Economic Work Conference once again released a clear signal: low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, etc. are listed as a number of strategic emerging industries.
According to incomplete statistics, since 2023, more than ten provinces have included “low-altitude economy”, “eVTOL” and other related content in their government work reports. Under this craze, in 2023, Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hainan and other places will hold development forums and seminars related to low-altitude economy.
Among them, Shenzhen will write the concept of “low-altitude economy” into the government work report for the first time in 2023, formulate the country’s first low-altitude economic industry development regulations, and build the country’s first 1.4GHz low-altitude economic communication network.
On December 26, 2023, Shenzhen Baoan opened the country’s first unmanned manned aircraft urban air traffic operation center. The center will cooperate with Ehang Intelligent and Pengcheng Wings to open the country’s first eVTOL short-distance sightseeing route.
Two days later, on December 28, 2023, seven departments of Shenzhen City jointly issued “Several Measures of Shenzhen City to Support the High-Quality Development of Low-altitude Economy”. It is mentioned that accelerating the industrialization of low-altitude aircraft such as manned eVTOL. Low-altitude economic enterprises that have obtained the type certificate and production license for eVTOL aircraft and unmanned aircraft issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and operate in this city will be rewarded, including 15 million yuan for eVTOL aircraft, 5 million yuan for large unmanned aircraft, and 5 million yuan for medium-sized unmanned aircraft. 3 million yuan for unmanned aircraft. The annual funding for each enterprise shall not exceed 30 million yuan, and the same model will only be awarded once.
On the same day, December 28, 2023, the Hefei Municipal Government released the “Hefei Low-altitude Economic Development Action Plan (2023-2025)”. It proposed that the Luogang low-altitude fusion flight test area will be basically built in 2024, and a “low-altitude city” with international influence will be basically built in 2025.
According to an official release from the Hefei Municipal People’s Government, Hefei’s low-altitude economy has gathered more than 60 companies. Since 2023, it has reached multiple cooperation with eVTOL companies such as EHang Intelligent, Shide Technology, and Zero Gravity Flight Industry.
In addition, Guangzhou Development Zone and Huangpu District have also successively formulated “Ten Low-altitude Economic Industries” special support policies for low-altitude economic industries.
Primary market eVTOL enterprise financing boom
It is understood that the eVTOL market will gradually become favored by capital in 2021. In terms of financing scale, in October 2021, Xpeng Huitian’s Series A financing ranked at the forefront with a financing amount of US$500 million. Investors include Hillhouse Ventures, IDG Capital, Sequoia China, Wuyuan Capital, and Bell Capital. Waiting for a number of leading institutions.
Since 2023, according to Xingkuang data from the Finance Association, a total of 8 eVTOL companies have received financing in the primary market. Among them, Wofei Changkong and Zero Gravity Flight Industry have received two rounds of financing in the past six months.
Judging from the latest financing, on December 13, 2023, Wofei Changkong completed the A+ round of financing. This round of financing was funded by Zhongke Chuangxing, Huakong Fund, West China Jinzhi Investment, and Sichuan Fengyi Enterprise Management Partnership ( Limited Partnership), Airport Capital, Yunsheng Capital, and Hairui Capital participated in the financing, making it the financing with the largest number of participating institutions in 2023.
At present, according to technical routes, eVTOL can be mainly divided into multi-rotor, composite wing, tilting wing, etc. There are differences in flight speed, load and technical implementation.
Among them, companies such as EHang Intelligent and Xpeng Huitian focus on multi-rotor technology, Volante focuses on composite wing technology, and Shi’s Technology and Wofei Changkong are representative companies of tilting wings. In addition, the zero-gravity flight industry claims that all three generations of technology routes are involved.
From the perspective of the competition landscape, reporters from the “Kechuangban Daily” noticed that there are many car companies among them. Among them, in 2020, Xpeng Motors took control of Huitian Technology, now Xpeng Huitian, and officially started the commercialization of flying cars. At the same time, Geely acquired the American flying car company Terrafugia in December 2017 and established Wofei Changkong in September 2020.
According to Morgan Stanley’s forecast, the global market space for urban air transportation will reach US$1 trillion in 2024, and is expected to reach US$9 trillion in 2025. According to data from market research and consulting firm Grand View Research, eVTOL is expected to maintain growth at a compound annual growth rate of 46.2% in the next five years.
When will “air taxi” really arrive?
Driven by policies and markets, the eVTOL industry is experiencing rapid development.
In terms of progress, many companies have disclosed that 2025 will be an important development stage for mass production.Among them, in October 2023, Shi’s Technology E20 eVTOL completed its first round of test flights. In an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Huang Yongwei, founder and CEO of Shi’s Technology, said, “Shi’s Technology will conduct manned flight tests in 2024; it is expected to produce mass-produced aircraft in 2025. If it is successfully completed in 2026, aviation certification work, after which our customers can begin operating the aircraft.”
At the same time, the founders of Xpeng Huitian and Dream Chase Sky have publicly stated that they expect to achieve mass production or delivery in 2025.
Airworthiness certification is considered a prerequisite for the commercialization of eVTOL. In 2023, the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system independently developed by EHang Intelligent was officially issued a type certificate (TC) by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. This is also regarded as one of the important events in the industry. Tianfeng International Securities stated that it may set an important benchmark for the airworthiness certification of innovative eVTOLs in China and even globally.
“The airworthiness certificate is an important step from product research and development to commercial application. It can also be said to be a watershed that distinguishes products from commercial applications. The airworthiness certificate previously belonged to the product research and development stage, and the core goal is to make drones After entering the commercial operation stage, the drones will be sold and used.” Lin Zhijie, a civil aviation expert, told a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
However, airworthiness certification is still a problem. At present, except for EHang Intelligent, which has taken the first step, other eVTOL-related companies are still in the exploratory stage. The application for certificates for Shi’s Technology E20 model and Volant VE25-100 model is in the stage of being accepted by the East China Civil Aviation Administration.
Lin Zhijie further explained: “eVTOL is a brand-new product, and its entire airworthiness certification syllabus is newly written. The authority has no relevant certification experience, so it requires joint discussion and exploration by both parties to complete it.”
Lin Zhijie also said,The issuance of an airworthiness certificate cannot be said to be qualified for commercial operation. “Currently, I am getting a type certificate, and there are two more certificates I need to get in the future, including PC (production license) and AC (stand-alone airworthiness certificate).。”
In addition to obtaining airworthiness certification, Huang Yongwei, founder and CEO of Shide Technology, once analyzed to a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that in terms of supply chain, since my country’s aviation industry started later than Europe and the United States, for products such as flight control systems and motors, companies There are certain difficulties in pursuing localized development.
“There are still many problems that need to be solved before entering the commercial application stage, such as: the safety and reliability of the actual operation of the product; application for operating airspace, including take-off and landing sites; and considerations of the most suitable application scenarios for eVTOL, etc.” Civil aviation expert Lin Zhijie further told reporters from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
In this regard, Huang Yongwei, founder and CEO of Time Technology, believes that “the commercialization of eVTOL will not be ‘flying all over the sky’ from the beginning. This can be said to be impossible. We must return to the essence of commercial implementation and gradually develop from a demonstration effect to multiple Route operation, and finally large-scale rollout.”
Tianfeng Securities analyst Kong Rong believes that the global development of eVTOL will follow the development direction from carrying goods to carrying people, from suburbs to cities, from special needs to daily life, from public services to commercial operations, and is expected to create an efficient and safe and a sustainable urban air intelligent transportation ecosystem.
(Source of article: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily)
Source of article: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily
Original title: Expansion of the travel landscape: The eVTOL field welcomes policies and the market blooms. When will the “air taxi” really arrive?
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2024-01-01 02:33:01
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