Shenzhen UAV Industry Enters Flower Age, More than 1730 Enterprises Output Value 96 billion Yuan

Shenzhen News Network, March 25, 2024(Shenzhen Special Zone News reporter Wen Kun) Not long ago, the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) "Shengshilong" took off from the home port of Shekou Cruise in Shenzhen. After about 20 minutes of flight, it landed at Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port Terminal. This is the first public demonstration flight of the world's first cross-sea and cross-city electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft route, and it has become a historic moment for all parties to witness future traffic.

Experts predict that the next 10 to 20 years will be the golden period for the development of drones. There is huge room for growth in applications in emergency response, logistics, plant protection, inspection, disaster prevention and mitigation, geological meteorology and other industries. In this colorful era, the ever-rising drone technology will break through the existing boundaries and move towards a smarter, more remote, and more environmentally friendly direction, bringing a broader development space for human society.

On March 23, with the Fengyi UAV loaded with bright pigeons landing accurately on the visual cloth, the low-altitude logistics route in Guangming District was officially opened.

eVTOL becomes the new blue ocean

In early March, "Shengshilong" took off vertically from the Shekou cruise home port platform, rose to a height of 100 meters, changed its flight mode to fixed-wing flight, and finally landed smoothly at Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port Wharf. The flight connects the two core cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, with a round-trip flight of more than 100 kilometers, a ground drive of 2.5-3 hours, and a drone flight of only 20 minutes. The aircraft is expected to start manned flights in 2026.

"eVTOL has become a new star in the development of low-altitude economy and is rapidly promoting commercialization." Yang Jincai, founding president of the Municipal UAV Industry Association and academician of the European Academy of Sciences, said that the highly developed railway and civil aviation systems have basically solved the demand for passenger and freight transportation between long-distance cities. However, within cities, between urban and rural areas or between cities, people yearn for safer, more efficient, convenient and environmentally friendly transportation. In recent years, as an emerging vehicle, eVTOL is expected to rapidly promote the commercialization of air traffic.

At the same time, with the gradual improvement of the domestic air traffic management system and airworthiness management regulations, a number of domestic eVTOL enterprises have risen rapidly. More than 10 eVTOL products such as Yihang, Xiaopeng, Fengfei, Wofei and Shishi have been launched and tested. Their application prospects are broad. In addition to integrating into the ground transportation system, they can also be widely used in emergency rescue and other aspects.

Air traffic new blue sea, eVTOL market against the wind. Urban air traffic is one of the important landing scenes of eVTOL in the future, and China will be the largest urban air traffic market in the world. It is estimated that the Chinese market will account for 20%-25% of the global eVTOL market by 2040. With the continuous advancement of my country's new urbanization construction, people's requirements for travel efficiency and experience continue to increase. eVTOL will play an important role in solving urban traffic congestion and shortening travel time.

Yang Jincai said that eVTOL also has broad application prospects in emergency rescue, medical first aid, logistics and transportation. According to the forecast of relevant institutions, the global eVTOL market size will reach 61.9 billion US dollars in 2026 and 1.5 trillion US dollars in 2040.

Drones promote low-altitude economy to fly high

In China, UAV has become an important support for low-altitude economic development. Vigorously promoting the development of low-altitude economy is not only conducive to expanding market space, but also promoting the internal demand for high-quality development.

Yang Jincai said that the low-altitude economy not only continues the traditional general aviation industry, but also integrates a new low-altitude production service mode supported by drones, relying on information technology and digital management technology to empower, forming a dynamic and creative comprehensive economic form that accommodates and promotes the coordinated development of multiple fields.

At present, UAVs are used in emergency rescue, logistics and transportation, agriculture, forestry and plant protection, power inspection, forest environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, geological meteorology, urban planning and management and other industries, and there is huge room for growth. To achieve better development of low-altitude economy, low-altitude opening is an inevitable trend. The construction of urban low-altitude sky road network supports the large-scale and commercial development of UAV applications. The low-altitude economy represented by UAV is also expected to become a new engine to stimulate social and economic growth.

Statistics show that by the end of 2023, there were more than 1730 UAV enterprises in Shenzhen, with an output value of 96 billion billion yuan. From January to October 2023, Shenzhen opened a total of 74 drone routes, drone logistics and distribution routes, and built 69 new drone take-off and landing points, completing 421000 sorties. More than 1500 enterprises in the industrial chain, such as Dajiang, Meituan, Fengyi and CITIC Haizhi, cover logistics and distribution, urban governance, emergency rescue and other application scenarios, initially forming a national leading low-altitude economic industrial cluster and industrial ecology.

Yang Jincai said that with the rapid development of Internet of things technology, drones, unmanned vehicles, unmanned ships, robots, etc. work closely to give full play to their respective advantages and learn from each other's strengths, forming a new supply chain system represented by drones and unmanned vehicles, and developing in the direction of intelligence. With the further development of Internet technology, the Internet of Everything will make people's production and life gradually more closely integrated with unmanned system products.

Shenzhen UAV industry is blooming

In February 2021, the low-altitude economy was written into the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" for the first time; in December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference identified the low-altitude economy as a strategic emerging industry.

As the leading industry of low-altitude economy, UAV has an average annual growth rate of more than 20%. It is becoming a new growth point of the national economy, providing new space for regional economic development and promoting the three-dimensional development of regional economy.

As a pilot city for low-altitude economic development, Shenzhen has taken the lead in low-altitude infrastructure construction and issued the "Shenzhen Low-altitude Economic Industry Innovation and Development Implementation Plan (2022-2025)"; in February this year, Shenzhen ushered in the country's first The low-altitude economic special regulation "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Low-altitude Economic Industry Promotion Regulations"; in March, in the "20 8" industrial cluster policy "2.0 Edition, new low-altitude economy and empty-sky industrial clusters, the time will be low-altitude economy" separate ". Shenzhen has issued intensive policies to promote the construction of low-altitude intelligent infrastructure integration facilities, build "four networks" such as facility network and air network, support enterprises to carry out pilot projects such as intelligent distribution at the end of unmanned aerial vehicles, routes in tourist attractions, and transportation services for biological agents, and simultaneously build unmanned aerial vehicle air traffic control service systems. Actively introduce large-scale UAV research and development, manufacturing and application enterprises to expand and strengthen the low-altitude economic cake.

Yang Jincai said that the next 10-20 years will be the golden period for the development of drones. The demand for drones is expanding day by day, and the continuous breakthroughs in high and new technology contain huge room for development. Shenzhen is actively planning in the light of reality, seizing development opportunities, and comprehensively building a unique regional advantage, industrial advantage, and policy advantage to support the low-altitude economy to become bigger and stronger.