The Chinese eVTOL developer EHang, in partnership with the real estate company Greenland Hong Kong, has announced the launch of its own autonomous urban air mobility (UAM) services.
Using EH216 autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs), the trial program will be rolled out in the Greenland Hong Kong’s tourism real estate project (Forest Lake) located in Zhaoqing, a popular tour destination city in Guangdong, China.
Forest Lake is located close to the new Zhaoqing-Pearl River Delta-Hub Airport, which is under construction. The area offers abundant tourism attractions, including seven natural lakes and wetlands covering 3 million square meters.
Within the framework of the project, it will offer aerial sightseeing services to passengers. It is assumed that excursion flights by air taxi will allow solving several problems simultaneously. In particular, tourists will have the opportunity to see the sights of the city and the beauty of nature, and those wishing to buy real estate – to look at the residential area from the air.
“Our philosophy for Forest Lake is focused on enriching residents’ lives by offering better cultural and tourism support. We can help achieve this goal through our strategic partnership with EHang, based on extensive research and mutual interests. We intend to work together to utilize our complimentary advantages to achieve win-win cooperation,” said Sun Qi, General Manager of Forest Lake.
EHang sees various advantages of its EH216 AAVs to conventional single-propeller helicopters, such as higher safety level, lower noise level, lower costs, and zero emissions. Powered by fossil fuel, helicopters discharge significant amounts of greenhouse gases and have high failure risks. The EHang 216 flying car is capable of carrying two passengers, has a maximum speed is 130 km/h (80 mph), and a per charge flight time of 21 minutes.
The closest competitor to implement such plans, the German company Volocopter, will be offering something similar only in the next three years.
