EHang initiates eVTOL aircraft services in Hengqin New Area, China as part of new partnership

EHang is to begin urban air mobil­i­ty oper­a­tions for aer­i­al sight­see­ing and oth­er air mobil­i­ty ser­vices in the Hengqin New Area, the largest island in south­east Zhuhai, Guang­dong Province, Chi­na.

The com­pa­ny has signed strate­gic part­ner­ships with Zhuhai Da Heng Qin Pan-Tourism Devel­op­ment, Zhuhai Huafa Sports Oper­a­tions Man­age­ment Co., Ltd. and Fly­ing World (Zhuhai) Tech­nol­o­gy Co. Dur­ing the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny on Jan­u­ary 8th, a fleet of EHang’s 216 aer­i­al autonomous vehi­cle (AAV) con­duct­ed aer­i­al sight­see­ing trips in Tian­qin Park — fly­ing 36 pas­sen­gers.

This lat­est news fol­lows EHang’s ear­li­er announce­ment that it has set up aer­i­al tourism ser­vices with Green­land Hong Kong Hold­ings, with the tri­al being rolled out on a real estate project called For­est Lake in Zhao­qing – a pop­u­lar tour des­ti­na­tion city in Guang­dong, Chi­na. 

Li Wei­hui, Deputy Sec­re­tary of the Hengqin New Area, said: “We warm­ly wel­come the arrival of EHang pas­sen­ger-grade AAVs to Hengqin. We believe this new style of intel­li­gent air mobil­i­ty will have more and bet­ter uses and will flour­ish in our beau­ti­ful Hengqin New Area.” 

Zhuhai Da Heng Qin Pan-Tourism Devel­op­ment Co. is the inte­gra­tor of tourism resources in Hengqin New Area, while locat­ed in the cen­tre of Hengqin, Huafa Sports Oper­a­tions Man­age­ment Co aims to build the biggest sports oper­a­tion plat­form in South Chi­na. Huafa Sport helps to pro­mote the stan­dard of liv­ing of Zhuhai cit­i­zens and the devel­op­ment of region­al sports indus­try. 

Rest­ing on the west bank of the Pearl Riv­er estu­ary, the Hengqin New Area is regard­ed as the core of Pearl Riv­er Delta and boasts a unique geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion adja­cent to Hong Kong and Macau. 

With rich tourism resources, it boasts favor­able con­di­tions and mar­ket demand for the devel­op­ment of short- and medi­um-haul urban air trans­porta­tion.

Lu Ting, CEO of Fly­ing World (Zhuhai) Tech­nol­o­gy Co, said: “We are excit­ed to coop­er­ate with EHang and oth­er strate­gic part­ners. By lever­ag­ing EHang’s world’s lead­ing AAV tech­nol­o­gy and strong sup­port from local gov­ern­ment, we see promis­ing mar­ket devel­op­ment poten­tial and are con­fi­dent that we can inte­grate air mobil­i­ty ser­vices into the leisure and tourism indus­try in Hengqin.

“We believe this effort can grad­u­al­ly expand across the Guang­dong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to form syn­er­gis­tic oper­a­tions and devel­op­ment.” 

Accord­ing to the Out­line of the Devel­op­ment Plan for the Guang­dong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Over­all Devel­op­ment Plan of Hengqin issued by the State Coun­cil of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of Chi­na, Hengqin will become a demon­stra­tion area for in-depth coop­er­a­tion among Guang­dong, Hong Kong and Macao.

It will also be an inter­na­tion­al leisure and tourism des­ti­na­tion suit­able for liv­ing, work­ing and trav­el, accel­er­at­ing the inte­grat­ed devel­op­ment of tourism in the Guang­dong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.