EHang “Slashes Retail Price of Autonomous EH216‑S Flying Taxi in China”

EHang announced this week a far cheap­er price for its EH216‑S autonomous fly­ing taxi than pre­vi­ous­ly sug­gest­ed, reports a press release. A finan­cial fig­ure of around USD1.3 mil­lion per craft had been moot­ed, but the com­pa­ny has now slashed this to become more glob­al­ly com­pet­i­tive to a price of around USD333,000, or close to USD1 mil­lion less.

The Chi­nese equiv­a­lent is RMB2.39 mil­lion, a price effec­tive from April 1st. And no, this is not an April Fool. The release states, “The com­pa­ny believes the pric­ing will more effec­tive­ly cater to the mar­ket needs and fur­ther enhance the val­ue of eVTOL craft and UAM.”

How this new and much low­er price will effect the company’s prof­it mar­gins is unclear, but giv­en EHang has been giv­en the go-ahead already by the CAAC for com­mer­cial flights in Chi­na, per­haps vol­ume of sales around the coun­try will now great­ly assist, espe­cial­ly when the com­pa­ny is eye­ing up the lucra­tive aer­i­al sight-see­ing mar­ket.

Huazhi Hu, Founder, Chair­man and CEO of EHang, remarked, “The low-alti­tude econ­o­my and its relat­ed indus­tries present a sig­nif­i­cant mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ty for our UAM devel­op­ment and serve as a new engine for future eco­nom­ic growth in Chi­na.” 

He con­tin­ued, “We look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with more glob­al part­ners, offer­ing con­sumers a nov­el expe­ri­ence of safe, autonomous and eco-friend­ly air mobil­i­ty. Our aim is to make pilot­less aer­i­al vehi­cle a com­mon part of every­day life, bring­ing its ben­e­fits to a broad­er pub­lic.”

The EH216‑S con­ducts a flight demo at the Jiu­long Lake Park, Huang­pu Dis­trict, Guangzhou (Cred­it — EHang)

So how does the 216‑S com­pare, price-wise, with its com­peti­tors in the West? Below are some exam­ples:-

(D/F = Dri­ve and Fly)

Jet­son One: USD98,000 (Kit), USD150,000 (ready assem­bled)

RYSE Recon: USD150,000

Switch­Blade: USD150,000 (D/F)

Air One: USD150,000+

SkyFly Axe: USD175,000+

Doroni H1: USD195,000

Xpeng Voy­ager X2: USD236,00 (Autonomous)

Alef Aero­nau­tics: USD300,000 (D/F)

EHang 216‑S: USD333,000

Hexa Lift: USD495,000

While EHang’s air­craft price still remains at the high end of the mar­ket, of course, it is autonomous which cre­ates an entire­ly dif­fer­ent cat­e­go­ry, so should the cost be com­pared? The answer is yes.

For the company’s pri­ma­ry autonomous com­peti­tor in Chi­na, the Xpeng Voy­ager X2, may sell for around USD100,000 less when it becomes com­mer­cial­ly avail­able. And while EHang has a head start, there is a like­ly chance that Xpeng could gain its own com­mer­cial green flag from the CAAC by the end of this year.

For more infor­ma­tion

www.ehang.com

(Top image: EHang)

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