Who is the domestic company that can manufacture unmanned airships with a ceiling of more than 20,000 meters?
It is reported that EHang Technology, a Chinese manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, has this kind of manufacturing capability. Whether the unmanned airship is really made by EHang Technology is still unclear. However, at present, besides Yihang Intelligent, there are enterprises capable of producing civil unmanned airships in China, such as Zhuzhou Rubber Design and Research Institute, DJI, and Parrot. Global leader.
Aircraft: the next outlet?
As we all know, the world's largest source of UAV technology is China, and China's UAV patent applications are far ahead, accounting for 71% of the global total . The number of related patents in the United States accounts for 13% of the global total, ranking third and The proportions of the fourth South Korea and Japan are both single digits, which shows that China has a leading edge in related fields.
According to the research report of Zhongyan Puhua, the scale of China's drone market will be about 96.8 billion yuan in 2023, and the scale of China's civilian drone market will reach 207.6 billion yuan in 2024. The report also predicts that the drone market will reach $279 billion in 2032. From 2015 to 2024, the average annual compound growth rate will reach 55%.
The report of the National Civil Aviation Work Conference in 2022 pointed out that in 2021, there will be as many as 12,700 UAV-related companies nationwide, and many UAV-related companies have attracted capital enthusiasm. Yuan financing, of which there are more than 20 companies that have raised more than 10 million yuan, and more than 10 companies that have raised more than 100 million yuan.
Driven by capital, many technology companies have begun to enter the track of unmanned and manned aircraft.
Why is the unmanned airship associated with EHang, or because EHang has recently become the darling of the investment community, and many investors are paying attention to EHang.
According to public information, Yihang Intelligent is a domestic drone technology developer. Its representative products include Ghost intelligent aerial robot. The products can be controlled by pure smartphones. According to the aerodynamic design, the battery life and aviation materials are optimized. , low energy consumption, pointing flight, aerial robot with follow function, somatosensory mode and multiple operating experiences.
The number of EHang's patented technologies cannot compete with DJI. Although EHang's R&D expenses have surged from 57.2 million yuan in 2019 to 105 million yuan in 2020, and then increased to 137 million yuan in 2021, its patents The number of patents is about 608 (as of the first quarter of 2022), while the number of related patents in DJI is as high as 4,600 in the same period. EHang's patents are mainly concentrated in the field of autonomous aircraft. However, compared with the number of patent applications in China's drone-related fields, their patents do not account for a high proportion, and their achievements are not outstanding. Even some organizations count on the number of patents, and the number of patents of EHang Intelligent Technology is not ranked high in the industry. ten.
In the TOP10 list of drones in the first quarter of 2022, DJI ranked first, and EHang ranked seventh. Whether it is influence or the number of patents, EHang lags behind its main competitors.