Guangzhou-headquartered EHang Holdings Limited has been granted China’s first passenger-drone production certificate. That gives it the green light to start mass producing its two-man flying taxi, known as the EH216-S, the South China Morning Post reports.
Granted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Sunday, the certificate was a major milestone for the global electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) industry as well as for China’s emerging low-altitude economy.
EHang’s founder, chairman and CEO Hu Huazhi said its issuance “represents a continuous innovation effort by Chinese enterprises and the government.”
[See more: Nansha takes off as China’s official low-altitude hub]
He described unmanned aerial vehicles and their certification systems as “relatively novel concepts around the world”.
The EH216-S is a pilotless multicopter capable of carrying up to two passengers and acting like an airborne taxi. It can travel up to 30 kilometres in one flight and has a maximum speed of 130 kilometres per hour. According to EHang, the drone has been designed to be used for air taxi services, aerial tourism, airport shuttles and other transport.
EHang has put the EH216-S up for sale on Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao with a unit price of 2.4 million yuan (US$332,000).
