China News Service, Beijing, March 17 (Yin Qianyun) At the end of last month, an "air taxi" took off from the Shekou cruise home port in Shenzhen and landed steadily at the Jiuzhou Port Terminal in Zhuhai 20 minutes later.
On weekdays, it takes more than two hours to drive between the two places.
The scientific name of this "air taxi" is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
As China writes the low-altitude economy into its government work report and regards it as one of its “new growth engines,” traveling by eVTOL may become a daily routine for people sooner.
A large market with trillions of potential is also about to emerge.
The so-called low-altitude economy is a comprehensive economic form that is mainly based on civil manned and unmanned aircraft, driven by low-altitude flight activities in multiple scenarios such as manned, cargo and other operations, and promotes the integrated development of related fields.
According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, China's low-altitude economy will exceed 500 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) in 2023, and is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan in 2030.
Although it is still in its early stages of development, the low-altitude economy has already begun to change the lives of Chinese people.
At present, there are related applications in industry, agriculture, service industry and other fields.
For example, "low-altitude + logistics" is currently the most widely used commercial scenario and the most likely to be implemented on a large scale.
Compared with traditional logistics, drone delivery is more efficient and convenient, and saves labor costs.
"Low altitude + tourism" can enrich tourists' experience and is expected to be launched first.
Many Chinese companies have keenly seized business opportunities.
DJI drones are being widely used in aerial photography, and Meituan has launched drone delivery services in some cities.
Chinese car companies such as Xpeng, Geely, and GAC have released a variety of flying car products. Although they have not yet been officially launched, they have obvious intentions of "stuck".
It is worth mentioning that the industry generally believes that aircraft and automobile industry chains are highly compatible. China’s accumulated technical experience and industrial chain advantages in the fields of aircraft and new energy vehicles are conducive to large-scale transfer to the low-altitude economic field.
He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, told reporters that the electrification and intelligent innovations brought about by the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry are realizing cross-industry applications in the low-altitude economic field. He hopes to use the large-scale supply of automobiles on the basis of new energy technology changes. Chain Logic launches a million-dollar flying car.
Various parts of China are also stepping up their deployment to seize opportunities.
Provinces such as Guangdong, Sichuan, and Anhui have proposed to actively explore the development of low-altitude economy, and cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen have introduced a series of supporting measures to increase support for low-altitude economic industries.
Under this development boom, Wu Renbiao, vice president of the Civil Aviation University of China, noticed that the drone industry cluster in southern China has gradually emerged, but it is not obvious in the northern region.
He reminded that the agglomeration effect is critical to industrial development, which is conducive to reducing enterprise manufacturing costs and forming mutual collaboration clusters.
Wu Renbiao suggested that northern cities can develop the drone industry in a dislocated manner.
For example, Beijing leverages its advantages in technological innovation and talent, and Tianjin leverages its advantages in advanced manufacturing research and development and its "neighborhood" and "offshore" space advantages to achieve complementary resources and coordinated development.
In addition, China's low-altitude economy is still in its infancy, and there is still considerable room for development in top-level design and infrastructure construction.
Han Jun, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, revealed that in the future, he will promote the construction of general airports and temporary take-off and landing points, improve the low-altitude flight service guarantee system, optimize the airworthiness standards, certification models and technologies of helicopters and unmanned aircraft, and enhance the airworthiness certification capabilities. .
Improve the comprehensive management platform for civil unmanned aerial vehicles, and promote the creation of several demonstration areas for low-altitude economic development based on civil unmanned aviation test areas or test bases.
These measures to build "roads" into the sky will help the new low-altitude economic engine to release growth momentum faster.
He Xiaopeng predicts that in terms of commercial scale, the low-altitude economy is expected to reach 20% of the automobile market in the future, and "it will definitely have great potential."
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