On April 18, Suzhou held a conference to promote low-altitude economic development. The reporter learned from the conference that “Certain Measures to Support High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in Suzhou” have been issued recently. The measures suggest that low-altitude economy enterprises that have established their headquarters or R&D, production, and manufacturing bases in Suzhou will be given a one-time reward of up to 10 million yuan in stages after obtaining manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle type certificates and production licenses issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Shan Zhongde said at the press conference of the State Information Office on the 18th that the next step is to speed up the construction of a new engine for low-altitude economic growth. Focus on strengthening four areas of work:

The first is to speed up equipment innovation. Because the development of a low-altitude economy requires low-altitude equipment, it focuses on the development trend of unmanned, electrification, and intelligence to accelerate research on the core technology of new general aviation equipment, including the application of batteries, motors, etc., to the aviation industry, and build a low-altitude equipment product system that meets the needs of different application scenarios and is low cost, high reliability, high performance, and high safety.

The second is to strengthen application traction. Focus on application scenarios, some are logistics, some are rescue, and others are transportation. The different scenarios are guided by the construction of an industrial ecological chain to create a demonstration system for low-altitude multi-scenario applications, actively cultivate high-tech enterprises in the low-altitude economy and specialize in new “little giant” enterprises, accelerate the industrial chain that lays out low-altitude economic development around the innovation chain, and truly strengthen the deep integration of industry, education and research, and better develop the low-altitude economy.

The third is to enhance technology penetration. Make full use of and make good use of next-generation enabling technologies such as information and communication technology, digital technology, intelligent technology, artificial intelligence, etc., to accelerate low-altitude intelligent joint technology research and model innovation, and provide solid support for the construction of future low-altitude safe and efficient operation systems. With equipment, network technology, and scene guidance, we can develop very well.

Fourth, strengthen standard support. Accelerate the establishment of an industrial standard system that supports the entire life cycle of R&D and design of low-altitude equipment, manufacturing, testing and verification, and operation, and work with relevant departments to promote the construction of a third-party inspection and certification system.

According to statistics, in 2023, about 16 provinces have included relevant content in government work reports and introduced support policies.

The low-altitude economy has huge market space. The scale of China's low-altitude economy will exceed 500 billion yuan in 2023, and is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan in 2030.

Companies involved in the low-altitude concept:

China Aviation Technology (02357), Xiaopeng Automobile-W (09868), Geely (00175), etc.