About an hour’s drive from the company’s headquarters in Guangzhou, China, sits a test site for Ehang’s autonomous aerial vehicles.

Perched on the tarmac during CNBC’s visit was the company’s fully autonomous, twoseater air taxi.

“This is our EH216 model, and it is positioned for shortdistance transportation or sightseeing in the city,” said Dong Wang, Ehang’s vice president of technical research and development. His interview with “CNBC Tech: The Edge” has been translated into English from Mandarin.

In October 2023, Ehang announced the EH216S AAV had secured a “type certificate” from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the country’s equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States — a certification Wang said is a world first.

“The operation is fully automated. Its scheduling system runs on the server, so its route is automatically loaded, and then it carries out a completely automated route flight.”

The aircraft will cost $410,000 overseas, with a reduced price tag of 2.39 million yuan in China, equal to about $330,000.

“We also have a larger aircraft for transportation between cities. Because of this other aircraft, we also need to build a vertical takeoff and landing flight site between cities,” Wang said.

Ehang plans to start commercial operations in China before the end of the year.

Take a tour of the EH216 and watch its test flight by clicking the video above.

#CNBC #EHang #eVTOL


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