The "China Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Development Report 2023-2024" shows that China has been the world's largest exporter of civilian drones for many years, accounting for about 70% of global patent applications in the field of drones and becoming the world's largest source of technology.
On the same day, the second CATA (China Air Transport Association) Aviation Conference was held in Beijing, and the report was released at the sub forum on general aviation and low altitude economic development.
According to the report, from January to August this year, the total number of civilian unmanned aerial vehicle flights in China reached 19.461 million hours, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%. In recent years, the annual economic growth rate of China's drone industry has been 10 percentage points higher than that of traditional navigation, becoming an important driving force for the development of the low altitude economy industry.
The report points out that under the guidance of market demand, the scale of China's drone industry continues to grow. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, there were over 2300 civilian drone research and development enterprises in China, with over 1000 mass-produced drone products. In 2023, China will deliver over 3.17 million civilian drones, and the scale of the civilian drone industry will reach 117.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%.
In the context of smart city construction and digital economy development, the application scenarios of drones are constantly enriching. The report believes that with the continuous updating and iteration of drone technology, especially the maturity of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology, application scenarios such as urban air traffic and urban short distance logistics transportation have approached commercial operation.
The report also pointed out that the current bottlenecks restricting the development of unmanned aerial vehicles are mainly concentrated in areas such as battery life, new material applications, and the interconnection of heaven and earth. In the future, there are broad development prospects in areas such as high-performance battery research and development, new energy development and utilization, and unmanned aerial vehicle identification technology.
