EHang Obtained World's First Commercial Pilot Operation Approval of Passenger-grade AAVs for Air Logistics Uses

EHang Holdings Limited the world's leading autonomous aerial vehicle (“AAV”) technology platform company, announced today that it obtained the world’s first commercial pilot operation approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (“CAAC”) to use EHang 216 passenger-grade AAVs for air logistics purpose. Thus, EHang became the world’s first AAV Company approved by a national aviation authority to carry out commercial pilot operation for the category of 150 kg plus heavy-lift air logistics uses.

This approval was granted based on the Pilot Operation Rules (Interim) for Specific Unmanned Aircraft promulgated by the CAAC in February 2019 for different categories of specific unmanned aircraft including passenger-grade AAVs. It is a pioneering regulation for which the CAAC applied the Specific Operation Risk Assessment (“SORA”) framework of the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking of Unmanned Systems (“JARUS”), a group of experts from the national aviation authorities of 61 countries, including China and the U.S., and the European Aviation Safety Agency (“EASA”) and EUROCONTROL.