EHang announced the launch of its UAM Operation Demonstration Centre in OH Bay, a renowned landmark in the Bao’an district of Shenzhen, at the end of 2023 — in what was a year of important milestones for the company.
Following its strategic partnership with the Shenzhen Bao’an District Government in July, this latest development — which took place on December 22nd, represented another big step forward towards launching aerial sightseeing services for the next phase.
This UAM Centre was swiftly built within four-month period by Bao’an Transportation Group, with support from the Bao’an District Government. It covers a total area of approximately 4,600 sq. m, and includes a bespoke eVTOL vertiport for EHang’s passenger-carrying pilotless eVTOL aircraft EH216‑S.
Other facilities include hangars, a command-and-control centre, passenger waiting area, a service centre and various expended essential amenities.
Xin Fang, Chief Operating Officer of EHang, said: “We are thrilled that, with the support of the government, our customer and partner, our collaboration has led to significant progress in Bao’an, which includes the successful launch of the first UAM Operation Demonstration Center in Shenzhen.
“The UAM operations and services make up an elaborate system that requires comprehensive preparatory groundwork. Following the major milestones of obtaining the first-of-its-kind Type Certificate and Standard Airworthiness Certificate for EH216‑S, establishing the UAM operation site and infrastructure is another key achievement.
“With our extensive experience in trial operations, EHang is poised to take the lead in developing operational benchmarks for UAM. This will further drive the growth of the low-altitude economy industry in Shenzhen as well as in the Greater Bay Area.”
To coincide with the launch event at the UAM Center, EH216‑S successfully completed its demo flight over OH Bay, which was witnessed by local government officials, regulators, enterprise representatives and citizens.
Bao’an Transportation Group has also entered into a letter of intent on cooperation with EHang, where the two parties will continue to work together and set up an operation demonstration model for passenger-carrying unmanned aerial vehicles. This also includes building a low-altitude economy ecosystem in Shenzhen.
Shenzhen Boling Holding Group, which has recently purchased five EH216‑S units and plans to purchase a further 95 units in future, recently established a subsidiary called Pengcheng Wings as part of a joint venture with EHang.
Pengcheng Wings will be involved in multi-party-cooperation on the low-altitude UAM operations as a flight service operator in Shenzhen.
Guanshen Xu, Chairman of Pengcheng Wings, added: “We are delighted to collaborate with industry-leading company EHang to jointly promote the commercial operation of low-altitude economy applications in Shenzhen.
“Starting from the UAM Operation Demonstration Center at OH Bay, we look forward to carrying out services with EH216‑S and pioneering low-altitude operational demonstration cases that will extend to the entire Shenzhen region and even the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.”
In recent years, Shenzhen has been at the forefront of implementing favourable policies for the development of the low-altitude economy, a strategic emerging industry in China.
Efforts range from relaxing aerospace restrictions to providing infrastructure support and site operations for enterprises to conduct trial services. Multi-party joint efforts will be dedicated to systematically developing a benchmark for UAM operations, thereby facilitating the establishment of Shenzhen’s low-altitude economy system framework.
