FeaturedNews

EHang confirms partnership with Charoen Group in Thailand to bring Urban Air Mobility to the country

EHang has formed a strate­gic part­ner­ship with Charoen Pokp­hand Group (CP Group) of Thai­land to estab­lish a joint ven­ture for autonomous aer­i­al vehi­cle (AAV) sales and urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM).

eVTOL Insights exclu­sive­ly revealed details of the sto­ry on April 1st and EHang has now offi­cial­ly con­firmed the news.

The par­ties will lever­age their exper­tise and resources in a long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion on AAV prod­uct sales and mar­ket­ing, reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance, busi­ness devel­op­ment, infra­struc­ture deploy­ment and tal­ent cul­ti­va­tion for future UAM oper­a­tions. 

The part­ner­ship also opens oppor­tu­ni­ties for CP Group and EHang in aer­i­al sight­see­ing, car­go trans­porta­tion, last-mile deliv­ery, city air taxi, and smart city man­age­ment in Thai­land and beyond.

Roy­al Thai con­sul-gen­er­al Jira­porn Sudanich attend­ed the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny in Guangzhou and said: “EHang’s inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies can be applied to tourism, logis­tics, health­care, dis­as­ter mit­i­ga­tion and agri­cul­ture. 

“I believe that the coop­er­a­tion between EHang and CP Group will enrich the indus­tri­al chain of robot­ic tech­nol­o­gy in Thai­land, and I also expect to see EHang bring­ing new vital­i­ty to the devel­op­ment of Thailand’s tech­nol­o­gy in the future.”

CP Group com­pris­es eight busi­ness lines and 14 busi­ness groups with invest­ments in 21 coun­tries and economies, cov­er­ing sec­tors in agri­cul­ture and food, retail and dis­tri­b­u­tion, media and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, e‑commerce and dig­i­tal, prop­er­ty devel­op­ment, auto­mo­tive and indus­tri­al prod­ucts, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals. 

Senior vice chair­man of CP Group Thanako­rn Seriburi, added: “By join­ing hands with EHang, we have tak­en a step fur­ther towards sus­tain­abil­i­ty and explo­ration of zero-car­bon air mobil­i­ty for the com­mu­ni­ty.”

“I believe our part­ner­ship will fur­ther cre­ate syn­er­gies between CP Group’s indus­tri­al, avi­a­tion, smart city, food, retail and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal busi­ness lines, and will unlock oppor­tu­ni­ties in a diver­si­fied UAM ecosys­tem to facil­i­tate the devel­op­ment of smart cities in Thai­land.”

EHang has recent­ly been expand­ing its foot­print to pen­e­trate Asian mar­kets with more cus­tomers and part­ners in Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indone­sia, and Thai­land. 

Last month, dur­ing the Indone­sia Inter­na­tion­al Motor Show 2022, EHang announced a pre-order for 100 of its EH216 eVTOL air­craft from Pres­tige Avi­a­tion in Indone­sia

EHang founder, chair­man and CEO Huazhi Hu, said: “We are thrilled to part­ner with CP Group to intro­duce AAVs to Thai­land, one of the largest South­east Asian mar­kets with great poten­tial for UAM oper­a­tions. 

“CP Group has com­pre­hen­sive busi­ness strengths to take the lead in bring­ing safe, autonomous and eco-friend­ly air mobil­i­ty to Thai indus­try and soci­ety.”

Avatar photo

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.

eVTOL Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769