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Zaragoza partners with EHang and becomes latest to join its growing UAM pilot city initiative in Europe

EHang has announced Zaragoza as its fourth pilot city part­ner in Europe, with the autonomous aer­i­al vehi­cle (AAV) devel­op­er to work with the city and pro­mote the imple­men­ta­tion of demon­stra­tion projects — for mis­sions includ­ing pas­sen­ger trans­port, aer­i­al tourism and aer­i­al logis­tics.

The agree­ment will also see EHang col­lab­o­rate on urban air mobil­i­ty infra­struc­ture devel­op­ments, such as com­mand-and-con­trol cen­tres and ver­ti­ports.

Both par­ties aim to build an aer­i­al trans­porta­tion hub in the city and in future, EHang will con­duct flight tests and pilot projects at the Hera Drone Hub and along the Ebro Riv­er — which is the largest in Spain.

Vic­to­ria Xiang, CEO of EHang Spain & Latin Amer­i­ca, said: “Zaragoza is a cru­cial trans­porta­tion hub city for Spain and for all of Europe. EHang is com­mit­ted to make safe, autonomous and eco-friend­ly air mobil­i­ty acces­si­ble to every­one.

“As the fore­run­ner of cut­ting-edge AAV tech­nolo­gies and know-how, EHang will lead inno­va­tion and build a sus­tain­able and effi­cient 3D air mobil­i­ty solu­tion for Zaragoza. The part­ner­ship will ben­e­fit the cit­i­zens of Zaragoza by mak­ing life more enjoy­able and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly.”

As the fifth largest city in Spain, Zaragoza active­ly pro­motes the devel­op­ment of urban air mobil­i­ty as one of the mem­bers of UIC2 (UAM Ini­tia­tive Cities Com­mu­ni­ty) in Europe.

This part­ner­ship with EHang will also help the city devel­op urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM) inno­va­tion Strat­e­gy and lead the expan­sion of UAM across the con­ti­nent.

Jorge Azcón Navar­ro, May­or of Zaragoza, said: “The part­ner­ship with EHang will fur­ther dri­ve the city of Zaragoza to become a pio­neer and leader in UAM in Spain and Europe.

“In the future, the gen­er­al pub­lic can enjoy the view of the Cathe­dral-Basil­i­ca of Our Lady of the Pil­lar, a nation­al art trea­sure in Zaragoza, not only from an Ebro riv­er boat but also from pas­sen­ger-grade AAVs over the Ebro riv­er.”

Zaragoza is the third Span­ish city in EHang’s UAM pilot city ini­tia­tive, after Seville and Lliria joined last year. In oth­er devel­op­ments across the coun­try, Spain’s nation­al air nav­i­ga­tion author­i­ty, ENAIRE, plans to begin the first air taxi demon­stra­tions in Barcelona and San­ti­a­go de Com­postela by 2022. No details have yet been revealed about which eVTOL air­craft man­u­fac­tur­er will be involved in the flight test­ing.

Sim­i­lar to its agree­ments with Span­ish cities, EHang has also signed a sim­i­lar agree­ment with Linz in Aus­tria, where it plans to imple­ment tri­al flights using its two-seater 216 mod­el.

At the end of 2020, EHang received a long-term flight per­mit to con­duct unmanned flights in Aus­tri­an air­space. A test flight in Novem­ber 2020, which took off in St. Mar­tin im Innrkeis, was also the first in open EASA air­space.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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