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EHang is among the Platinum sponsors of this tenth edition of Dronitaly 2024. We speak with the CMO Europe, Andreas Perotti, to better understand the company, today a leader on the market for the production of autonomous passenger drones and how it sees future scenarios for the development of sustainable air mobility in Italy and Europe.
Dronitaly: tell us briefly about EHang's mission in the UAM/AAM world and why you chose Dronitaly to show your EH216S for the first time in Italy.
CMO Europe, Andreas Perotti: We are the world’s leading UAM company and cover a wide portfolio of autonomous aerial vehicles for mobility use cases. Our vision is to make the lower airspace accesible for everyone, in an affordable and sustainable way. In principle we build the helicopter for all, which is not limited to rich people. We achieve that by designing the whole value chain as simple as possible, from a lean vehicle to autonomous operations. Our flagship model EH216-S has obtained the world’s first type certificate, production certificate and standard airworthiness certificate for passenger-carrying pilotless eVTOL aircraft issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In short, we are the only company worldwide which is ready for commercialisation. We are convinced that Italy is a perfect market for our solutions as well and look forward to present them to all visitors at Donitaly.
Dronitaly: What are the innovations that EHang brings to the sector of air mobility linked to the Smart Cities of the future?
CMO Europe, Andreas Perotti: We provides customers in various industries with unmanned aerial vehicle systems and solutions: air mobility, including passenger transportation and logistics, smart city management, and aerial media solutions. Our products are of different sizes and adaptable for many different use cases, but all are based on a harmonized hard- and software platform. This is our unique approach and makes it easy for us to adapt to our customers needs very fast. Our 216 platform for example has a passenger grade version, a logistics version and also a firefighting version. All can be operated simultaniously out of the same system. This also gives us a big advantage in manufacturing and operational costs.
Dronitaly: What developments do you foresee in the future of cities in Italy and Europe for the transport sector with the use of eVTOL, why is the tourist air service important for EHang in our country? Tell us about the Baobab project and the collaboration with the well-known Italian architecture studio Giancarlo Zema Design Group, which is also Guest Designer and Art Director of this edition of Dronitaly.
CMO Europe, Andreas Perotti: We believe that Europe will be a hotspot for UAM solutions moving forward. It will take time due to a regulatory intensive environment though. But we are very optimistic that individual countries, like Italy, who are strongly supporting low airspace technologies, will speed up processes which already took place in our domestic markets in Asia for example. It also can have advantages not to be the first mover. We believe that use cases are identical on a global scale, of course with different preconditions looking at the maturity of public transport, tourism our how cities are designed. It will start with tourism and then evolve to commuting. Especially in the beginning i twill be an additive technology, meaning it won’t replace a mean of transport but provide additional value to safe time – which is the most valuable currency of our century. Sooner or later eVTOLS will be integrated in all major mobility hubs. Its also an easy and low invest way to attach new domestic areas, like newly built districts, to existing mobility systems. Imagine you would be able to build a bus or metro station on demand to your new appartment, thats a gamechanger for real estate. But we also see lots of potential to connect rural with central areas. Why operate an expensive trainstation in a village for a few people, if you can provide the passengers a faster transport for a better price? And there are ten-thousands examples like that in Europe. Our cooperation with Giancarlo and his team has been very valuable to us. The Baobab is a great vision on how UAM infrastructure can be sustainably and aestehtically pleasing integrated into our landscapes. We can’t wait to see the first one becoming real.
