Press Release

Issued by EHang, Inc..

February 25, 2020

EHang Holdings Limited, the world's leading autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) technology platform company, has announced new progress in implementing real-world urban air mobility (UAM) applications for medical emergency transport uses to combat the coronavirus outbreak in China.

In recent exercises for the prevention and control of the coronavirus epidemic organised by the local authorities of Hezhou city in Guangxi province, an EHang 216, the two-seat passenger-grade AAV successfully transported medical supplies from Hezhou Square to the Hezhou People's Hospital, which are four kilometres apart, by accurately landing on the 25-storey rooftop of the hospital.

The EHang 216 AAV automatically returned after the delivery. The eight-kilometre round-trip flight operation was unmanned, which is critical in the current epidemic situation. This has opened up a new opportunity for EHang’s AAVs in immediate UAM applications such as medical emergency transport, which currently largely relies on ambulance cars or helicopters.

More importantly, designed as a passenger-grade AAV, the EHang 216 can not only transport medical supplies, but also transport personnel in emergency situations. Edward Xu, EHang’s chief strategy officer (CSO), took a four-kilometre autonomous flight from the city centre and landed safely on the rooftop of the hospital in one of a series of urban passenger-carrying flights to test run this use case in Hezhou, including flights at nights, with the range covering the whole city (over 15 kilometres) and at a cruising speed as high as 90 kilometres per hour.

"Personally, I’m proud to be one of the first passengers to take the initial autonomous flights for medical emergency transport, and enjoyed the safe, fast and smooth journey. In urban emergency situations, this enables people or goods to be transported efficiently across the city in nearly straight-line routes. More importantly, as a passenger, I was free to enjoy my tea and the urban scenery during the whole flight as everything was automatically piloted,” said Edward. “Such successful flights have demonstrated EHang’s capabilities in delivering safe and high quality AAVs to meet mission-critical demands in real life. We will continue to implement more UAM applications.”