At Hongjiu Culture Street in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, staff placed bonded ordered goods at the drone takeoff point. After the drone carrying the goods started, it flew in the air for about 1 minute and arrived at the destination in 4 minutes.
On February 7th, Guangzhou Development Zone officially launched the first batch of efficient logistics low altitude routes and completed the first flight verification. The first batch of 10 efficient logistics low altitude routes planned to be opened cover densely populated commercial areas in the area, including Red Wine Culture Street, Luogang Wanda Plaza, Skyscraper Workshop, Huangpu Junlan Hotel, Guanzhou Xianglan Hotel, Zhitai Plaza, etc., with the farthest reaching Guangzhou International Biological Island.
For the eVTOL industry, "flying" is still relatively distant, but the scene of "flying" receiving express delivery is expected to become a reality.
On January 20th, the first cross-border e-commerce fast delivery bonded direct purchase store in China opened in the Guangzhou Development Zone. With the opening of drone "flash delivery" routes, the consumption radius of cross-border e-commerce stores has expanded by 35 kilometers - cleared goods can be transported through designated routes using drones, and targeted delivery can be achieved within about half an hour at the end of the route.
Weng Jianmiao, Chairman of Guangzhou Cross border E-commerce Co., Ltd., told Interface News that drone delivery has solved an industry pain point, which is a significant reduction in delivery time: "In the past, goods ordered through bonded services needed to wait for a long time, and in most cases, it took 3-7 days. However, through drone transportation, it can reach consumers within about 30 minutes within the route range."
Low altitude logistics routes are a feasible application scenario for the development of low altitude economy in Guangzhou Development Zone. Among the 10 routes, 6 routes take off from the Red Wine Culture Street, which is connected to cross-border e-commerce delivery; There are also three routes flying from large commercial districts to Tai Plaza and surrounding communities and technology parks.
The drone for "Flash Delivery" comes from Yihang Intelligence. According to previous reports from Interface News, in December 2023, Yihang Intelligence signed an agreement with Guangzhou Development Zone Communications Investment Group to invest the EH216-S spacecraft in the regular operation project of Jiulong Lake for tourism purposes.
In recent years, more and more domestic enterprises have joined the drone logistics army. In addition to companies represented by Yihang Intelligence that specialize in developing drones, there are also e-commerce logistics companies such as SF Express, JD.com, and Cainiao, as well as delivery companies such as Meituan.
Within the drone industry, there is a polarized view on the application of drone logistics. One side believes that drone logistics has broad prospects and a promising future; The other party raises questions about the commercial monetization model of drone logistics.
Guangzhou Huangpu undoubtedly holds the first viewpoint and is seizing the low altitude economic highland. In December 2023, Huangpu introduced the "10 low altitude" industrial support policy. Before launching the drone delivery route, a commuter route for air testing from Jingxia to Jiulonghu Square had already been opened, as well as two air travel experience routes, namely Nano Town and Changzhou Island Urban Agricultural Park, had been tested.
On the one hand, it is a favorable policy environment. Since 2022, the Ministry of Transport has issued the "Operation Requirements for Drone Logistics Distribution" and the "Guidelines for the Construction of Intelligent Logistics Standard System for Transportation", which have formulated relevant standards for drone distribution.
During an interview with Interface News, He Tianxing, Vice President of Yihang Intelligence, pointed out that urban tourism is the first stage of drone commercialization. With the introduction of policies to support the low altitude economy by governments from all over the country, this industry has entered the second stage and is expanding its application scenarios. The flight range will also expand from suburban and scenic areas to densely populated city centers.
During the epidemic, drones have been used for trial operation in the distribution of medical supplies such as nucleic acid testing samples, plasma, and drugs, which has also increased public acceptance of drone distribution.
On the other hand, this emerging industry has the characteristics of high added value and strong driving force for the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. At present, Guangzhou Development Zone has gathered about 50 enterprises in the low altitude economic industry, covering upstream and downstream enterprises such as design and research and development, component manufacturing, system integration, and application services, with an annual output value/revenue scale of about 13 billion yuan.
Unmanned spacecraft companies such as Yihang Intelligence are also exploring profit models. He Tianxing mentioned that Yihang has partners in cities within Guangdong Province such as Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Zhaoqing, and its production base is in Yunfu. In addition, it has also expanded cooperation in non Guangdong regions such as Hefei and Qingdao.
However, eVTOL also faces "mileage anxiety" like new energy vehicles. Taking EH216-S as an example, a single flight only takes 30 kilometers, 25 minutes, and 2 hours of charging before it can be put into the next operation. This range can still handle logistics distribution within designated routes, but it needs to be applied to scenarios with high load capacity and long flight times, even for "air taxis", and the problems of low energy efficiency and limited range of multi rotor aircraft need to be solved.
He Tianxing revealed that he has been discussing with several partner manufacturers how to improve the energy density of batteries: "At present, the focus is to increase research and development investment in the battery field to improve the overall range. There is an important concept called 'sustained airworthiness', which also requires improvements in technology and materials in all aspects."