Exedy Drones opened reservations on Monday for the Ayre CX, an agricultural spray drone it plans to assemble in Van Buren Township, Michigan, with first deliveries targeted for spring 2027. Farmers and spray operators place a $1,000 reservation through an authorized Exedy dealer to claim one of the first 500 production positions, which the company calls the Founders Series.
The Ayre CX sprays liquid and spreads seed or fertilizer from the same airframe, and it holds the FCC conditional approval DroneXL reported in July. Exedy is a unit of a Japanese clutch maker. It has not published a price. Dealers quote one in writing, and $750 of the reservation stays refundable until a January conversion. Exedy’s public Build Log still lists all five of the program’s testing gates as upcoming, starting with a prototype flight sign-off targeted for this month.
Exedy Ties the $1,000 Reservation to Five Public Testing Gates
The $750 refund lasts until the buyer converts to a $5,000 non-refundable deposit, and conversion waits for field and spray validation. Exedy targets that step for the Spray Drone End User Conference in January 2027, when it assigns serial numbers and starts FAA N-number registration.
The five gates on Exedy’s Build Log are prototype flight in November, field validation and spray system validation in December, production build approval in February 2027, and delivery in spring 2027. The company’s press release says field validation will take place in Panama. If a gate slips, every place in line rolls forward with it. Exedy has already posted flight footage and photos of the aircraft spraying corn. The gates are the company’s formal sign-offs, and it posts findings after its own approval.
According to the reservation page, a reservation does not assign a serial number, guarantee a delivery date or set the final aircraft price. Founders Series aircraft get double the standard warranty term (battery and charger excluded) and a spare parts kit, and the first 150 reservations add an upgraded 15,000-watt charger Exedy values at $1,100, in place of the standard 7,200-watt unit. Reservations are limited to end users, at up to 20 per entity.
Scott Binder, vice president of Exedy Drones, said the “road here has been difficult, rewarding and humbling.”
Exedy’s Spec Sheet Puts the Spray Tank at 13.2 Gallons
Exedy’s spec sheet gives the Ayre CX a 13.2-gallon (50-liter) liquid tank and an 18.5-gallon (70-liter) drop-in hopper for granular seed or fertilizer, while Michigan Farm News printed the liquid tank as 113.2 gallons in its November 4 report on the launch.
The spec sheet lists variable flow from 0.5 to 12.7 gallons per minute, a 34Ah LiPo flight battery, a top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) and a wind rating of 13.5 mph (22 km/h). Lidar senses obstacles front and rear, and radar handles terrain following on top of RTK-level navigation. Exedy says spray performance figures and spray footage come after the December spray gate.
A Japanese Clutch Maker Plans to Build the Ayre CX in Michigan
Exedy Drones belongs to Exedy Globalparts Corporation, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s EXEDY group, which makes clutches and drivetrain parts for automakers. It plans to assemble the Ayre CX in Van Buren Township, west of Detroit, and ship parts from there to 14 dealers in 11 states.
Chad Bauer, who farms in Reese, Michigan, and sells Exedy drones through his Michigan Drones LLC, told Michigan Farm News, “All the parts sourcing is local.” Exedy’s own Our Story page puts it differently: the aircraft is built in the USA “with locally and globally sourced components.” Exedy says its software is coded in the U.S. and its data sits on U.S. servers.
Pilot Institute, a DroneXL partner, said in its July update that conditional approvals under the FCC’s updated policy stay valid as long as the maker follows the onshoring plan it submitted. Exedy has also taken a side in the FCC’s next rulemaking: it was one of three domestic ag-drone companies that filed near-identical comments supporting a ban on named Chinese makers.
The import market Exedy competes with got more expensive this fall. Since September 3, most imported drones with a maximum takeoff weight above 25 kilograms (55 pounds) pay a 100% Section 232 tariff, and a sprayer carrying 50 liters of liquid clears that threshold on its payload alone.
Half of Spray Operators Told ASDC They Won’t Pay More for American
In the American Spray Drone Coalition’s 2025 Impact Survey, 49% of operators said they would pay no premium at all for an American-made spray drone. Another 41% would pay at most 25% more. Operators ranked productivity first and said country of origin had little influence on what they buy.
American-made aircraft still took 24.25% of U.S. spray drone sales in 2025, nearly four times their 2024 share, mostly by filling the gap a customs hold on DJI shipments left. Total sales fell 59% to about 3,711 aircraft, as DroneXL reported in October, while drone-sprayed acreage rose 58.7% to more than 16.4 million acres. ASDC’s FCC filing puts a typical spray drone package above $40,000, and its survey report calls for growing U.S.-based manufacturing of “quality and cost effective drones.”
DroneXL’s Take
I like how Exedy set this up. Keeping $750 refundable and publishing the gates is a fair way to take money for an aircraft that is still in testing, because a farmer can watch every step before the money becomes non-refundable.
Price will decide whether this works, and the Build Log can’t answer it. Exedy is selling Michigan assembly and U.S.-coded software to operators who told ASDC that country of origin barely moves them. It is also selling into a market where it asked the FCC to ban named Chinese rivals and where big imported sprayers now pay a 100% tariff. I’d rather see an American sprayer win on what it does in a cornfield than because the alternatives got taxed or banned, and the December spray data is where Exedy gets to show that.
If you reserve one, get your dealer’s price in writing before the January conversion, because the $5,000 deposit you convert to is non-refundable.
Sources: Michigan Farm News, Exedy Drones press release, Exedy Drones Ayre CX spec sheet, Exedy reservation terms, Exedy Build Log, ASDC 2025 Impact Survey
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
