The world’s first automatic manned eVTOL, developed by the Chinese manufacturer EHang, is put on display at the World Internet Conference 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, on April 2, 2024. 

Two accidents changed the direction of Hu Huazhi’s life.

One was the death of a pilot friend who hit a power line while flying an aircraft to spray pesticide. The other was the death of his helicopter instructor during a mission. The two tragedies deeply affected Hu, today founder, president, and CEO of EHang, the autonomous aerial vehicle company based in Guangzhou, south China, and made him determined to develop a pilot-less aircraft that could carry passengers safely.

In 2014, he founded EHang, which focuses on research and development of unmanned aerial vehicle systems and solutions. Genetics probably had a role in his career path since Hu comes from a family of engineers. When he was a young boy, he was fond of animals that can fly and learned how to make high-quality kites. At the age of nine, he became interested in computer programming, which led him to study a major in computer science at Tsinghua University.

During his college years, Hu’s hobby was collecting aircraft models. He began to learn the structures of different models, including fixed-wing planes, helicopters, biplanes, and monoplanes. Later, with a friend he established a museum in Beijing, displaying thousands of airplane models. He also obtained a license to fly fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

In 2005, Hu founded a company to provide large-scale computer command and control systems. Then in 2013, he learned about multi-axis aircraft, which have a simple structure that facilitates hovering with a low crash rate. At that time, communication industries such as mobile networks, smartphones, and smart hardware were emerging and enterprises, especially mobile phone companies, were adopting microsensors. Hu believed these technologies could be used to develop automated systems for unmanned flights. Subsequently, he winded up his dispatch business in Beijing and moved to Guangzhou, which had a complete drone industry chain.

EHang became the world’s first eVTOL company to go public, listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2019. It has many passenger-carrying eVTOL models, including a one-seater and a two-seater. Their narrow size enables them to take off from and land in narrow areas. In 2019, Hu received the Technology Innovation Award given by the American organization Living Legends of Aviation for his contribution to urban air mobility, becoming the first Chinese to receive the recognition.

According to He Tianxing, vice president of EHang, compared with traditional aircraft, the eVTOL, which is intelligent and integrates many technologies, has higher safety and lower operation, maintenance, and service costs. The many advantages ensure its use in multiple scenarios such as emergency rescues and transportation in urban low-altitude airspace, which is a huge industrial driving engine.

In June 2021, EHang’s eVTOLs took part in a unique emergency operation, assisting the Guangzhou municipal government’s fight against COVID-19. They were used as first responder vehicles and built an air emergency channel in the city. As they are now operating in more parts of China, the company plans to start air sightseeing services in six cities.

Overseas, EHang has expanded its footprint to 17 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For example, last year it opened its European Urban Air Mobility Center in Catalonia, Spain, the first such center in Europe, extending its reach to Latin America and Africa. It also has an alliance with the Spanish National Police, Spanish national air navigation service provider ENAIRE, the cities of Seville and Zaragoza, and international telecommunications leader Telefónica. This September, it successfully completed the first trial run of its EH216-S pilotless two-seater eVTOL in Brazil. In October, it announced a four-city flight tour in Japan, ahead of the 2025 Japan Expo.

EHang also has the Middle East in its sights. In May, it completed its first autonomous passenger-carrying flight in Abu Dhabi, the UAE. A month later, it completed its first autonomous air taxi flight in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in partnership with Front End, a Saudi-based enterprise.

“The low-altitude economy can become the biggest transformation led by the transportation industry during the next decade,” He Tianxing said. “It integrates big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, new materials, and new energy. All emerging industries will develop around the low-altitude economy, which has unlimited opportunities for innovative development.”

With supportive policies and improvement in the management of the low-altitude economy over the past years, several eVTOL enterprises have emerged in China. According to data from Qichacha, the Chinese business database, by August 2024, there were 71,300 low-altitude economy related companies in China, and the annual registration volume is increasing. In 2023, there were 9,000 registered enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 37.17 percent.

This marks that eVTOL products are entering the stage of large-scale production, laying a new foundation for the development of the low-altitude economy.