eVTOL Startup EHang Prepares 

for Nasdaq Share Offering




 - November 1, 2019, 11:37 AM
An EHang 216 eVTOL aircraft.
In 2019, EHang conducted flight demonstrations in China for its 216
Autonomous Aerial Vehicle. [Photo: EHang]
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer EHang yesterday filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 
(SEC) to prepare the way for an anticipated $100 million initial public 
offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. Late on October 31, the China-based group 
made an SEC F1 filing for the Cayman Islands-registered EHang Holdings Limited, giving notice of its intention to offer Class A ordinary shares from 
an as-yet unspecified date before the end of 2019 and secure a Nasdaq 
listing under the symbol EH. The IPO would make EHang the first of 
numerous privately-owned eVTOL startups to go public.
One factor that sets it apart from other companies vying to get ahead in a crowded sector that reportedly includes up to 200 new aircraft developments 
is that EHang has already started to make deliveries of its two-seat 216 Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AAVs). According to the F1 filing, it has 
delivered 38 AAVs since March 2018 to various partners and prospective distributors, including freight group DHL-Sinotrans. It reported 
“unfulfilled orders” for 28 aircraft.
With the approval of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), 
EHang earlier this year began some demonstration flights in its home 
city of Guangzhou and various other locations in China. In February, 
it filed an application with CAAC for operations in support of a 
customer’s logistics business under the Pilot Operations Rules (Interim) 
for Specific Unmanned Aircraft. The company said it is hopeful of getting 
this approval before year-end.
In the SEC filing, EHang indicates that for now its main focus is on the 
Chinese market. It acknowledged that the regulatory environment for autonomous aircraft operations in the U.S. and Europe remains more 
complex for now.
During the first six months of 2019, EHang reported a net loss of $5.5 
million, which was 42 percent higher than the loss it incurred in the same 
period for 2018 Revenues for the first six months of 2019 were also down 
by 15.6 percent at $4.7 million. The company, which was formed in 
December 2014, already markets a family of consumer drones and also 
operates drones in public displays for marketing purposes.During 2017, 
EHang subsidiaries in Germany and the U.S. filed for bankruptcy and these cases are still being resolved. The company indicated that these companies traded as sales organizations for consumer drones before it decided to 
withdraw from the market in those countries.