EHang Collaborates with KC Smart Mobility “to Advance Autonomous Aircraft Sales and Operations in Hong Kong and Macau, to Purchase 30 EH216‑S eVTOLs”  

Chi­na-based EHang recent­ly announced the sign­ing of a pur­chase and oper­a­tion coop­er­a­tion agree­ment with KC Smart Mobil­i­ty, reports a press release.

A sub­sidiary of Kwoon Chung Bus Hold­ings (KCBH), the largest non-fran­chised bus oper­a­tor in Hong Kong, this col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to pro­mote the deploy­ment and oper­a­tion of EHang’s autonomous EH216‑S eVTOL in Hong Kong, Macau, and the Chi­nese cities of Xiangyang and Shiyan in Hubei Province. KC Smart Mobil­i­ty also plans to pur­chase 30 eVTOLs.

KCBH pro­vides pas­sen­ger trans­port ser­vices between main­land Chi­na and Hong Kong, as well as local ser­vices. The com­pa­ny has also expand­ed its busi­ness into the tourism sites such as Lan­tau Island in Hong Kong and Bipeng­gou Tourism Resort in Sichuan Province. 

KC Smart Mobil­i­ty, plans to con­tribute to the Hong Kong Spe­cial Admin­is­tra­tive Region Gov­ern­men­t’s upcom­ing blue­print for low-alti­tude econ­o­my (LAE) devel­op­ment and the for­mu­la­tion of relat­ed laws and reg­u­la­tions. The part­ner­ship will make joint efforts to kick off the EH216‑S flight event in the region, set­ting a bench­mark for UAM oper­a­tion with autonomous eVTOLs.

Hong Kong is active­ly align­ing itself with the nation­al strat­e­gy of LAE. John Lee Ka-chiu, CEO of the Hong Kong Spe­cial Admin­is­tra­tive Region, stat­ed in the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil that “the gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing new pro­duc­tive forces by lever­ag­ing the region’s robust research capa­bil­i­ties and inter­na­tion­al advan­tages to spur inno­va­tion, includ­ing in the low-alti­tude econ­o­my indus­try.”

Pro­fes­sor Sun Dong

Pro­fes­sor Sun Dong, Sec­re­tary of Inno­va­tion, Tech­nol­o­gy and Indus­try Bureau of Hong Kong Spe­cial Admin­is­tra­tive Region, high­light­ed that “the region has a sol­id tech­nol­o­gy foun­da­tion for eVTOLs. Fur­ther­more, the gov­ern­ment will pay close atten­tion to the advance­ments and devel­op­ments in the eVTOL space, and tai­lor plans and strate­gies in accor­dance with Hong Kong’s unique con­di­tions, legal frame­works, mar­ket needs, and com­mer­cial con­sid­er­a­tions of poten­tial ser­vice oper­a­tors for projects enhanc­ing tourist expe­ri­ences,” explains the release.

Jingkai Zheng, Main­land Chi­na Busi­ness Direc­tor at KCBH, remarked, “KCBH has always been ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing excep­tion­al trav­el ser­vices. Our part­ner­ship with EHang marks a new era by extend­ing our pas­sen­ger trans­port ser­vices from the ground to the sky.” 

He con­tin­ued, “We look for­ward to the EH216‑S play­ing a sig­nif­i­cant role in aer­i­al sight­see­ing and air mobil­i­ty, as well as oth­er use cas­es in Hong Kong and Macau, and we will pre­pare for EH216‑S com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion with the high­est safe­ty stan­dards that ensured for our air mobil­i­ty ser­vices.”

Zhao Wang, CEO of EHang, added, “With KCBH’s long his­to­ry and exten­sive cus­tomer base in the trans­porta­tion sec­tor, we believe our col­lab­o­ra­tion will effec­tive­ly pro­mote the deploy­ment and oper­a­tion of EH216‑S air­craft in Hong Kong and Macau. This part­ner­ship will inject new vital­i­ty into local tourism and air mobil­i­ty mar­ket to dri­ve inno­va­tion and devel­op­ment in the low-alti­tude econ­o­my sec­tor.”

For more infor­ma­tion

www.ehang.com

https://www.kcbh.com.hk/index.php?lang=en

(Top image: EHang)

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