Zurich drone hub establishes itself on the world stage

Zurich has become the hub for the expanding global activities of Chinese company EWATT, which specializes in developing high-endurance drones and complex UAV solutions. A major reason for this is the fertile ground for UAVs in the Greater Zurich Area, says Victor Paciura, head of international operations at EWATT.

Why did EWATT choose the Greater Zurich Area for its new European headquarters?

Victor Paciura: We could not imagine a more convenient location for the EWATT European headquarters as we also operate R&D offices in Northern Italy. The Swiss work attitude, the big talent pool, and the collaborative spirit of the UAV community here make working here a wonderful experience. The newly established EWATT Switzerland AG has a number of functions: marketing and sales, collaborating on projects, overseeing the work of R&D offices, subsidiaries and partnerships operated by EWATT outside of China. International investments by the EWATT Group will also be conducted via EWATT Switzerland AG.

How important is R&D for your Swiss operations?

Zurich and Switzerland overall have been a very fertile ground for UAV research teams, their commercial spin-offs and drone companies. This was the major reason why we decided on Zurich. We are still developing the terms of cooperation with potential partners. In Italy, however, we have already tapped into the local UAV and aircraft community. The results are encouraging, and so EWATT intends to continue to develop our R&D base there. Development of our Swiss and Italian R&D is happening in parallel, while the work on the two new aircraft is being completed at two R&D offices in Italy. EWATT Switzerland AG is intended to strengthen the EWATT Group's expertise in software and potentially develop aircraft and solutions for very specific industrial uses.

Is there already cooperation in the area of R&D in Switzerland?

At this point I cannot talk about specific collaborations because discussions are still underway. But EWATT will definitely contribute to the local community by offering internships, work opportunities, and launching and entering collaborations within the community.

EWATT founder and CEO Darren Zhao emphasised that the drone market is changing and that cooperation in the drone sector is needed - what exactly does this mean?

Market competition stimulates the companies, which in theory would mean they have to offer higher price:quality ratio products than their competitors. The market size for drones is already quite considerable in certain applications, for example military, mapping, precise agriculture, and first and foremost in the consumer market won big by DJI [editor's note: DJI is a chinese drone-maker]. Industrial drones do not sell in such high numbers as consumer drones. To build a good solution that meets the requirements of the end users, you need the input from different parties. Let's say we want to build a drone that can identify land mines: We need to gather a team that includes drone and payload companies, land mine specialists, the army experts. So from developing drones and all technologies in-house we see the shift to collaborative effort in order to provide the high-value added UAV solutions.

Which suppliers or customers in Switzerland are already of great importance to EWATT?

I can name a few customers, such as power companies, railways, forest companies, police and law enforcement, but the uses of drones are truly endless. At EWATT we strive to apply cutting-edge technologies to solve the existing problems, or raise the efficiency of certain jobs dramatically, by employing drones.

Do you have a recent example of a challenging request? 

Yes. For instance, we have been asked by a local company to develop a solution that will help cope with avalanches. We need to understand the problem, analyse possible solutions with experts, and then find out how to make it work. People who can contribute to such causes, even by putting us in touch with the local mountain rescue are therefore also of great importance to us.

In which direction will EWATT move in its international activities?

We are currently finishing up work on three different unmanned aircrafts, which will start coming out in few months. Alongside aircraft development, we also have a few projects for developing industrial solutions. Our aim is to bring them this year to market, while building the international network of distributors, partners and service companies.