EHang plans to debut its eVTOL aircraft for passenger flights at the 2025 World Expo. The company recently announced its Q2 financial results, and the management team held an earnings call to share details about their progress. (Photo: EHang)
Electric air taxi developer EHang announced financial results for the second quarter of 2022 on August 18, following financial updates from two other leading electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developers, Joby and Archer, this month. EHang is pursuing type certification with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its vehicle, the autonomous EH216, and has made significant progress in developing the aircraft in the past year.
EHang performed a series of demonstration flights last month in Japan, including the country’s first eVTOL demo flight over the sea in Fukuyama City. The company’s CEO, Hu Huazhi, remarked that they expect to offer crewed flights with the EH216 at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka.
The EHang team has also claims to have conducted over 5,700 operational trial flights of the EH216 so far.
According to EHang’s unaudited Q2 results, total revenue amounted to $2.2 million (USD), a 152.5% increase from the first quarter of 2022. Net loss increased slightly for EHang’s second quarter, totaling $11 million.
Huazhi commented during the earnings conference call that the company “continues to expand our orders, preorders, deliveries and customers, especially in China and Southeast Asia” in 2022.
EHang recorded sales and deliveries of 8 units of its autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV); the company recorded just 3 units in Q1.
A flight demonstration of the EH216 in Bali, Indonesia (Photo: EHang)
The CAAC announced in February the formal adoption of Special Conditions for Type Certification of EHang’s EH216-S aircraft. The 216-S model is specifically designed for transporting passengers; EHang also plans to offer a 216-L model for logistics and a 216F for firefighting operations. These Special Conditions define the process by which EHang will proceed with compliance verification as the company works towards type certification.
Huazhi explained during the earnings call, “The most important thing for us at present is the EH216-S airworthiness certification, and the process has progressed into new phases since this year. Before the CAAC issued the special conditions, there had not been any available airworthiness certification standards applicable to this new type of aircraft.”
He continued, “As there was no precedent, we had to closely work with the CEC to further develop this new type of airworthiness standards together according to the relevant airworthiness concept and principles.”
Once the EH216 has been awarded an airworthiness certificate, it will offer a cost-effective, low-altitude platform for customers in the tourism industry, according to Xin Fang, Chief Operating Officer. He noted that they received a pre-order for 100 EH 216 aircraft from Prestige Aviation, based in Indonesia. “We are actively expanding our presence through the empowerment of local partners in Southeast Asia, where the UAM market is also in high demand,” he stated during the earnings call. EHang is also collaborating with CP Group to introduce its AAVs in Thailand.
COO Xin Fang also shared that the company has invested all of its efforts into autonomous technologies from the start, “including flight control algorithms, the flight lift systems, and battery systems and also the command and control systems.”
A total of 210 of EHang’s passenger-grade AAVs have been pre-ordered in Asia, and Fang shared that they expect at least 200 of customer pre-orders to be delivered in roughly three years. EHang has already delivered five aircraft that are performing trial operations now.