Chinese urban air mobility start-up EHang has completed cold-weather test flights of its two-seater EH216 autonomous aerial vehicle over Beijing, as it embarks on a production capacity expansion.
Ehang discloses that it two EH216 prototypes flew five trial flights over Yanqi Lake, located north-east of the Chinese capital. Temperatures during the test flights, which took place earlier this month, dipped as low as -14°C.
“EHang believes trial flights in extreme weather and diversified environments demonstrate the safety and reliability of its cutting-edge … technologies,” the Guangzhou-based company adds.
To date, it has completed over 10,000 trial flights on the EH216 in 42 cities across eight countries.
Meanwhile, EHang has also disclosed that it is building a new autonomous aerial vehicle production facility in Yunfu city, located west of Guangzhou in southern China.
It expects operations at the 24,000 sq ft facility to commence in the second quarter of the year.
Apart from additional production lines, the Yunfu facility will also house a carbon fibre composite materials processing area, a research and development centre, as well as a painting workshop.
EHang states that the Yunfu facility will be pivotal in helping it meet its production target of 600 units annually.
