EHang has unveiled the EHang 216L, which is the logistics version of the company's EHang 216 designed for short-to-medium-haul air logistics in both urban and rural areas.

Boasting a payload of more than 440 pounds, which to EHang’s knowledge is the largest for multi-rotor autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs) for aerial logistics, the EHang 216L opens up more commercial opportunities for the company in various urban and rural short-to-medium-haul aerial logistics use cases that require frequent and point-to-point flight tasks. One example that EHang highlights is in mountainous areas with poor road conditions, the EHang 216L can help boost the local economy by more quickly and efficiently transporting agricultural products.

“We’re thrilled to unveil another new version of AAV following the EHang 216F. The EHang 216L will meet the demand for heavy-lift AAVs for short-to-medium-haul aerial logistics,” says EHang’s Founder, Chairman and CEO Hu Huazhi.

“With increasing payloads and flight ranges, aerial logistics is expected to be one of the initial commercial applications of AAVs as it has higher efficiencies but lower emissions than the conventional ground transportation.”

The EHang 216L is equipped with a fully redundant safety design and particularly, a distributed electric propulsion configuration made up of eight arms and 16 independent motors and propellers. EHang says that the 216L design delivers the key characteristics for which the company is known: safety, autopiloting, cluster management, interconnection and clean energy.

The EHang 216L can be deployed for a variety of use cases, including delivering supplies and oil samples for offshore oil rigs autonomously, and replenishing supplies in busy international ports more efficiently. The AAV can also be an especially powerful tool in time-critical missions such as aerial emergency supply transportation and disaster relief in a more automatic and large-scale manner, just to name a few.