EHang becomes latest company to expand operations to the UAE and inks deal with Wings Logistics Hub for up to 100 eVTOL aircraft

EHang is extend­ing its oper­a­tions to the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, after announc­ing it has joined the Smart and Autonomous Vehi­cle Indus­tries (SAVI) Clus­ter in Abu Dhabi. It has also penned a deal with Wings Logis­tics Hub, which will buy up to 100 EH216 eVTOL air­craft with ini­tial deliv­er­ies set to begin in Q1 2024.

The aim of this part­ner­ship is to col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly advance the devel­op­ment of urban air trans­porta­tion and smart city man­age­ment in the UAE and the Mid­dle East and North Africa (MENA). It will also look to intro­duce EHang’s autonomous eVTOL air­craft into the UAE.

Mr. Huazhi Hu, Founder, CEO and Chair­man of EHang, said: “We’re excit­ed to share our involve­ment in the SAVI Clus­ter and our strate­gic alliance with Wings Logis­tics Hub and EIH as we broad­en our reach in the UAE mar­ket.

“As the first com­pa­ny glob­al­ly to receive a type cer­tifi­cate for an autonomous eVTOL from China’s nation­al civ­il avi­a­tion author­i­ty, we’re eager to bring our lead­ing-edge tech­nolo­gies to the UAE. Our aim is to work with our local part­ner to enhance safe, intel­li­gent, autonomous, and eco-friend­ly air mobil­i­ty in this region.”

Wings Logis­tics Hub and EHang will now work togeth­er to facil­i­tate local cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and oper­a­tions of the EH216 series eVTOLs in the UAE. This includes the EH216‑S, EH216‑L, and EH216‑F mod­els, which are designed for pas­sen­ger trans­porta­tion, aer­i­al logis­tics, and fire­fight­ing respec­tive­ly.

Mohamed Al Dha­heri, board mem­ber of Wings Logis­tics Hub, expressed enthu­si­asm about col­lab­o­rat­ing with EHang to estab­lish their inau­gur­al inter­na­tion­al oper­a­tions in Abu Dhabi.

He said: “Intro­duc­ing elec­tric avi­a­tion to the UAE is antic­i­pat­ed to alle­vi­ate con­ges­tion with zero emis­sions and, con­se­quent­ly, attract sig­nif­i­cant for­eign direct invest­ment and gen­er­ate thou­sands of jobs in the region over the next decade.

“We take pride in our par­tic­i­pa­tion in the SAVI Clus­ter and remain stead­fast in our com­mit­ment to advanc­ing smart and autonomous vehi­cle tech­nolo­gies for pas­sen­ger trans­porta­tion, mobil­i­ty, logis­tics, and smart city man­age­ment in the UAE.”

The SAVI Clus­ter, sit­u­at­ed in Mas­dar City and led by the Abu Dhabi Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment (ADDED) and the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Office (ADIO), is ded­i­cat­ed to estab­lish­ing Abu Dhabi as a key hub for smart and autonomous vehi­cles.

SAVI pro­vides state-of-the-art facil­i­ties and val­ue-added ser­vices with­in a sup­port­ive reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work. This ini­tia­tive encour­ages inno­va­tion and aids in the com­mer­cial appli­ca­tion of smart and autonomous vehi­cle tech­nolo­gies.

Wings Logis­tics Hub will cater the pas­sen­ger eVTOLs and logis­tic tech func­tions with­in EIH Eth­mar Inter­na­tion­al Hold­ing. Its ded­i­ca­tion cen­ters on seam­less­ly incor­po­rat­ing cut­ting-edge tech­nolo­gies, spe­cial­is­ing in smart and autonomous vehi­cle tech­nolo­gies, as well as extend­ed infra­struc­ture includ­ing ver­ti­ports across the realms of pas­sen­ger trans­porta­tion, smart logis­tic and smart city man­age­ment.

Pic­ture cap­tion: Mr. Mohamad Al Dha­heri, board mem­ber of Wings Logis­tics Hub (right), and Mr. Conor Chia-hung Yang, CFO of EHang (left), at the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny to announce the strate­gic part­ner­ship between two com­pa­nies.