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An EHang all-electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) two-passenger multicopter aircraft, performs an unmanned display flight at a Korean government event at Yeouido island in Seoul on November 11, 2020.

Ed Jones | Afp | Getty Images

BEIJING — Self-driving air taxis are one step closer to reality in China.

Guangzhou-based Ehang on Friday said it received an airworthiness “type certificate” from the Civil Aviation Administration of China for its fully autonomous drone, the EH216-S AAV, that carries two human passengers. The regulator is the equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S.

U.S.-listed Ehang claims it’s the first in the world to get such a certificate, which allows it to fly passenger-carrying autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in China.

The certificate will also significantly simplify the company’s ability to get similar certificates for commercial operation in the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia, CEO Huazhi Hu told CNBC in a video conference interview.

“Next year we should start to expand overseas,” he said, noting those regulators still need to establish a process for mutual regulation of the Chinese airworthiness certification. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

Ehang shares have nearly doubled in price this year, before trading was temporarily halted Monday “in anticipation of an upcoming announcement concerning a very significant development regarding its business operations.” Trading was set to resume Friday.

The company has a market capitalization of about $1 billion.

Global regulatory action

The U.S. FAA in July released a plan that provides a path toward allowing similar autonomous flying vehicles, but initially still requires pilots to sit on board.

California-based Joby Aviation, one of the leading industry players in the U.S., announced earlier this month it expanded its flight test program from remote piloting to include a pilot on board — but it didn’t mention any passengers. Joby has a contract with the U.S. Air Force the company claims is worth up to $131 million.

Regulators in China have been paving the way for autonomous flying vehicles to gain certification. In June, China released new rules for unmanned aircraft flight — vehicles without a pilot on board. It is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2024.

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Hu said Ehang is still evaluating which city in China the company will launch its first air taxi passenger flight in, and declined to share a specific date. Hu is also Ehang’s founder and chairman of the board of directors.

He noted that China is the fastest-growing and largest market — with the biggest demand — for such flying vehicles.

In the second quarter, Ehang said it set up a joint venture with Shenzhen-listed Xiyu Tourism and delivered five EH216-S units. The venture aims to develop low-altitude tourism with at least 120 Ehang vehicles in the next five years, the company said.

Ehang said it has overseas pre-orders for more than 1,200 units, including from customers such as Japan AirX, Malaysian Aerotree and Indonesia’s Prestige.

Hu said the company would roll out deliveries rather than filling orders all at once given the industry is still in an early stage of development.

Still, he predicts that in about five years, air taxis will be a common sight in many cities.

Safety track record

Friday’s certification news comes as local Chinese governments, including in Beijing, have allowed fully driverless robotaxis on public streets, and in some cases charge fares to the public.

A significant difference between self-driving taxis and self-piloting drones is that while cars on the road must make turns at intersections, a drone flight is between two points in the air, Ehang’s CEO said.

Hu said Ehang started doing autonomous aerial flight testing in 2017. There were some vehicle incidents during the early experimentation period, he said, but no big accidents have occurred during subsequent tens of thousands of flights, including overseas.

“Whenever carrying humans, until now, we have maintained a very good safety track record,” he said.

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Xiaomi shares see biggest drop since April after fatal EV crash sparks safety concerns

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Xiaomi shares see biggest drop since April after fatal EV crash sparks safety concerns

A Xiaomi electric car SU7 in a store in Yichang, Hubei Province, China on July 19, 2025.

Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi saw its shares fall over 5% on Monday, following reports that the doors of one of its electric vehicles failed to open after a fiery crash in China that left one person dead.

The stock slid as much as 8.7% in Hong Kong, marking its steepest drop since April, before paring losses after images and video of a burning Xiaomi SU7 sedan in Chengdu circulated on Chinese social media.

Video and eyewitness accounts showed bystanders trying but failing to open the doors of the burning car to rescue an occupant. Personnel at the scene eventually used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, local reports said.

Chengdu police said the crash occurred after the SU7 collided with another sedan, killing a 31-year-old male driver who was suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol.

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Xiaomi shares

Xiaomi, which manufactures consumer electronics, software and electric vehicles, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The latest incident follows a fatal SU7 crash earlier this year that raised questions about the vehicle’s smart driving features and sent Xiaomi’s shares tumbling.

The crash could also intensify scrutiny on electronic door handles, a design popularized by Tesla and now common in modern EVs. 

Unlike mechanical models, electronic door handles rely on sensors and electricity and may fail during a fire or power outage.

China is considering a ban on such electric door handles to address safety risks linked to the feature, state-backed media reported in late September.

Meanwhile, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into about 174,000 Tesla Model Y vehicles after reports of door handle failures.

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Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia in ‘highly exceptional’ move

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Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia in 'highly exceptional' move

A close-up view of the Nexperia plant sign in Newport, Wales on April 1, 2022.

Matthew Horwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Dutch government has taken control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor maker based in the Netherlands, in an extraordinary move to ensure a sufficient supply of its chips remains available in Europe amid rising global trade tensions.

Nexperia, a subsidiary of China’s Wingtech Technology, specializes in the high-volume production of chips used in automotive, consumer electronics and other industries, making it vital for maintaining Europe’s technological supply chains. 

On Sunday evening, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs revealed that it had invoked the “Goods Availability Act” on the company in September in order “to prevent a situation in which the goods produced by Nexperia (finished and semi-finished products) would become unavailable in an emergency.”

Following the announcement from the Hague, Wingtech plunged its maximum daily limit of 10% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The Goods Availability Act allows the Hague to intervene in private companies to ensure the availability of critical goods in preparation for emergency situations, and its use comes amid escalations in the U.S.-China trade war.

The government statement said the “highly exceptional” move had been made after the ministry had observed “recent and acute signals of serious governance shortcomings and actions” within Nexperia.

“These signals posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities. Losing these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security,” it said, identifying automotives as particularly vulnerable.

Governance changes

In a corporate filing dated Oct.13, lodged with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Wingtech confirmed Nexperia was under temporary external management and had been asked to suspend changes to the company’s assets, business or personnel for up to a year, according to a Google translation.

Wingtech chairman Zhang Xuezheng had been immediately suspended from his roles as executive director of Nexperia Holdings and non-executive director of Nexperia after the ministerial order, according to the filing.

The filing added that Nexperia’s daily operations will continue, with the impact of the measures not yet quantifiable.

“The Dutch government’s decision to freeze Nexperia’s global operations under the pretext of ‘national security’ constitutes excessive intervention driven by geopolitical bias, rather than a fact-based risk assessment,” Wingtech said in a deleted WeChat post, which was archived and translated by Chinese policy blog Pekingnology.

It added that since it acquired Nexperia in 2019, Wingtech “has strictly abided by the laws and regulations of all jurisdictions where it operates, maintaining transparent operations and sound governance,” and employs “thousands of local staff” through R&D and manufacturing sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Britain.

A spokesperson from Nexperia told CNBC that the company had no further comments, but that it “complies with all existing laws and regulations, export controls and sanctions regimes,” and remained in regular contact with relevant authorities.

The Netherlands’ move comes after Beijing tightened its restrictions on the export of rare earth elements and magnets Thursday, which could impact Europe’s automotive industry. 

The move could also further strain trade relations between China and the Netherlands, following years of restrictions on Dutch company ASML’s exports of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.

In 2023, the Netherlands had also investigated Nexperia’s proposed acquisition of chip firm startup Nowi, though the deal was later approved.

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Navan sets price range for IPO, expects market cap of up to $6.5 billion

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Navan sets price range for IPO, expects market cap of up to .5 billion

FILE PHOTO: Ariel Cohen during a panel at DLD Munich Conference 2020, Europe’s big innovation conference, Alte Kongresshalle, Munich.

Picture Alliance for DLD | Hubert Burda Media | AP

Navan, a developer of corporate travel and expense software, expects its market cap to be as high as $6.5 billion in its IPO, according to an updated regulatory filing on Friday.

The company said it anticipates selling shares at $24 to $26 each. Its valuation in that range would be about $3 billion less than where private investors valued Navan in 2022, when the company announced a $300 million funding round.

CoreWeave, Circle and Figma have led a resurgence in tech IPOs in 2025 after a drought that lasted about three years. Navan filed its original prospectus on Sept. 19, with plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NAVN.”

Last week, the U.S. government entered a shutdown that has substantially reduced operations inside of agencies including the SEC. In August, the agency said its electronic filing system, EDGAR, “is operated pursuant to a contract and thus will remain fully functional as long as funding for the contractor remains available through permitted means.”

Cerebras, which makes artificial intelligence chips, withdrew its registration for an IPO days after the shutdown began.

Navan CEO Ariel Cohen and technology chief Ilan Twig started the company under the name TripActions in 2015. It’s based in Palo Alto, California, and had around 3,400 employees at the end of July.

For the July quarter, Navan recorded a $38.6 million net loss on $172 million in revenue, which was up about 29% year over year. Competitors include Expensify, Oracle and SAP. Expensify stock closed at $1.64on Friday, down from its $27 IPO price in 2021.

Navan ranked 39th on CNBC’s 2025 Disruptor 50 list, after also appearing in 2024.

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