EHang has announced the sale of 41 autonomous EH216-S multicopter eVTOLs to a special economic zone in Changchun, Jilin Province, China, as part of Beijing's Low Altitude Economy initiative to integrate drones and advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft into its national airspace.
The aircraft will be delivered to the management committee of the Jingyue High-tech Industrial Development Zone, a national economic development and innovation hub in Changchun, Jilin province. They will be operated on aerial tourism flights–including of the Jingyuetan National Forest Park and the Changying Century City theme park–as well as for emergency response, passenger transport and other use cases, EHang says.
As with arrangements that EHang has with various Chinese municipalities–such as the Bao'an District Government of Shenzhen and the Hefei Municipal Government–the Jingyue High-Tech Zone in Changchun has agreed to a host of support measures for EHang, including manufacturing, R&D, testing and regulatory assistance.
As an example, the Jingyue High-Tech Zone will develop an “Integrated Aerospace Triad” industrial ecosystem that includes a “low-altitude smart connectivity test site for extreme cold ecosystems,” a cold-weather testing site that will be used to develop airworthiness criteria for the operation of electric aircraft in cold environments. Located in northeastern China, temperatures in Changchun often reach as low as -20C (-3F) during the winter months.
EHang and the Jingyue High-Tech zone will also partner to manufacture composite materials for AAM aircraft and eVTOL components.
The Jingyue High-Tech Zone has also established a digital aerial mapping tool spanning several provinces across Northeast China, encompassing airspace management, low-altitude digital coding, satellite communications and computing power core nodes, which EHang says will help build a “provincial-scale low-altitude command and dispatch platform” to support its operations in Changchun.
The partnership announcement with Jingyue High-Tech Zone came several days after EHang at the Paris Air Show announced an expanded agreement with battery specialist Gotion High-Tech Co. to jointly develop next-generation battery solutions for the EH216-S using Gotion's newly developed 46-series cylindrical battery cell.
Also at the air show, EHang and U-Space service provider ANRA Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding to leverage the latter's certified airspace management platform to “create compliant system solutions for operations in complex airspace environments.”
Earlier in June, EHang completed a public demonstration flight in Abu Dhabi carried out with support from the Smart and Autonomous Systems Council, Abu Dhabi Investment Office and Multi Level Group. The company has conducted numerous demonstrations around the world, including in Brazil, Spain, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
EHang delivered 11 EH216-S aircraft in the first quarter of 2025, a sharp slowdown from 78 deliveries in last year's fourth quarter, a difference the company largely chalked up to a seasonal slowdown.
Two operating certificates were granted earlier this year by the Civil Aviation Administration of China–to Guangdong EHang General Aviation, a wholly-owned subsidiary; and Heyi Aviation, the company's joint venture in Hefei Province. This allowed the world's first commercial passenger-carrying services to begin using certified eVTOL aircraft.
EHang also has said it plans to unveil a full-scale prototype of its VT-35 intercity lift-plus-cruise eVTOL in the second half of the year.