EHang Is Only Company With All Three Approvals as eVTOL Air Taxi Programs Advance in China, US, Japan, UK and India
Why It MattersCommercial eVTOL service is gated by certification rather than flight capability, and China's regulatory lead over Western and Indian programs now defines the competitive order before any large-scale operations begin.
Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis are being developed and tested in China, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and India. These aircraft are electric, lift off vertically without a runway and then transition to forward flight; they are distinct from dual-purpose road-and-air cars. Commercial passenger service requires design and airworthiness certification, production approval and commercial operational certification, and EHang is the only company to have obtained all three.
In China, EHang's two-passenger, pilotless EH216-S received design approval in October 2023, production certification in March 2024, and passenger service authorization for two operators in March 2025. According to company data, trial flights with two operators in Guangzhou and Hefei had been under way for 17 months through August 2026, and inner-city routes are being evaluated in Guangzhou. AutoFlight's five-passenger Prosperity completed a 50-kilometer Shenzhen–Zhuhai flight in February 2024; in November 2026, five of its eVTOLs flew simultaneously for 47 minutes.
In the United States, Joby Aviation's S4, designed for one pilot and four passengers, had completed three of five stages of the FAA certification process as of November 4, 2026, with pilot-led flight testing expected in the first half of 2027. Joby has flown government-backed flights in Texas and Florida, and its second Dubai air taxi station is complete. Archer Aviation's Midnight received a special airworthiness certificate from the FAA on November 9, 2026, enabling crewed flight tests in Los Angeles; the company is preparing for programs tied to the 2028 Olympic Games.
In Japan, SkyDrive's SD-05 completed 300 test flights and reached 100 km/h by June 2026; the company agreed a certification plan with the Civil Aviation Bureau in March 2026 and targets commercial service by 2028. In the UK, Vertical Aerospace flight-tested its Valo in April 2026 under UK Civil Aviation Authority supervision, aiming for certification by 2028.
In India, Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation completed testing of a 700-kilogram half-scale Sylla model in July 2026 (over 500 tests, more than 18 hours of flight time) and received design organization approval from the DGCA in August 2026; it aims to build a six-passenger vehicle named Shunya. Chennai-based The ePlane Company showed its full-scale e200X prototype (one pilot, two passengers), intended first for air ambulance use; by August 2026 it was in the second of the DGCA's four approval phases, with flight testing targeted for April 2027.
Challenges include battery weight, limited range, safe landing after failures, low-altitude corridors, vertiports, and charging and maintenance infrastructure. The US Government Accountability Office reported that by December 2025 airport layout plans at 47 US airports included electric aircraft charging stations, 43 of them small or lesser-used facilities.
