The most promising application scenarios for drones in the future
2026-04-24
On the demand side,although the proportion of drone applications in the current express logistics scene is not as high as that in geographic surveying and agricultural crop protection,it is based on the huge domestic logistics demand,and its future market space is expected to be much larger than that of geographic surveying and agricultural crop protection applications.From 2019 to 2023,the total volume of express delivery services in China has grown rapidly,reaching 132.072 billion pieces in 2023,a year-on-year increase of 19.4%.Driven by high demand,the demand for logistics drones has also exploded.According to data from the Shenzhen Drone Industry Association,the drone market size in China's logistics industry was only 1 billion yuan in 2019,but reached 1.68 billion yuan in 2020.It is expected that from 2024 to 2029,the market size of China's low altitude economic logistics industry will grow from 33 billion yuan to 192 billion yuan,CAGR 42%。
On the policy side,various national ministries and local government departments have emphasized policy support for low altitude logistics in different important documents.In 2024,four ministries including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the"Implementation Plan for Innovative Applications of General Aviation Equipment(2024-2030)"and the"Action Plan for Improving Transportation Standards(2024-2027)"to plan drone logistics from a top-level design perspective;On February 25th,the draft of the Civil Aviation Law(Revised Draft)was released for comments,which clearly allows general aviation enterprises to engage in some regular transportation businesses,merge the admission approval procedures(replace the original dual certificates with operating licenses),and implement classified management to enhance market vitality;At the regional level,most regions in China have introduced corresponding low altitude plans.Let's summarize the commonalities of policy documents,mainly focusing on five aspects:
Firstly,infrastructure construction comes first.Multiple regions are planning and constructing general airports,vertical take-off and landing points,and unmanned aerial vehicle logistics nodes(such as Shenzhen building over 1000 take-off and landing points and over 1000 low altitude commercial routes by the end of 2025,and Suzhou building over 200 take-off and landing points and over 100 unmanned aerial vehicle routes by the end of 2026).
Secondly,scene layering.According to the hierarchical layout of"trunk branch terminal",the trunk line covers intercity transportation(such as Xinjiang lamb transportation),the branch line serves mountainous areas/islands(such as Tonglu,Zhejiang),and the terminal focuses on instant delivery(such as Nanjing cross river route).
Thirdly,financial incentives.Chengdu,Shenzhen and other places directly reduce enterprise costs through subsidies(up to 90 yuan per shipment)and tax incentives(such as additional deductions for research and development expenses).
Fourth,technological integration.Promote the integration of 5G,RISC-V chips(such as Dongfeng DF30 chips)with low altitude logistics to enhance the level of equipment intelligence.
Fifth,emergency coordination.Multiple regions have incorporated low altitude logistics into their emergency response systems,such as forest fire prevention in Sichuan and aviation rescue in Chongqing,to strengthen their social service functions.
