All Americas of Stellantis with Archer’s air taxis
Stellantis and Archer Aviation plan to build a large electric air taxi (eVTOL) factory in the southern United States. Furthermore, Tavares is not the only car manufacturer interested in this form of alternative mobility. All the details
The Stellantis car manufacturer announced today, on the occasion of the Paris Air Show 2023, a deepening of its strategic partnership with Archer Aviation, a US company that manufactures electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL, in jargon).
THE COVINGTON FACTORY, SOUTHERN UNITED STATES
Stellantis and Archer are working on building the world's first full-scale eVTOL manufacturing facility in Covington, Georgia. The southeastern United States is attracting a lot of investment in battery factories for electric cars.
The start of aircraft production is scheduled for mid-2024, said Carlos Tavares, chief executive officer of Stellantis. Adam Goldstein, CEO of Archer, reiterated however that the goal of his company is "marketing on a scale", which requires large production volumes.
WHAT STELLANTIS WANTS TO DO WITH ARCHER'S AIR (AND ELECTRIC) TAXI
According to Stellantis, Archer's electric aircraft will offer "a fast, quiet and sustainable way to get around the city". The automotive company – born from the merger of Fiat Chrysler with Peugeot – will provide Archer with up to 150 million dollars of equity capital to support the mass production of Midnight, an eVTOL model developed by the Californian company and designed for urban flights at high frequency.
The electric power supply – six independent battery packs, specifically – guarantees the absence of carbon dioxide emissions during the flight. Midnight has a range of 160 kilometers (but is optimized for consecutive flights of around 30 kilometers), a recharge time between flights of 10 minutes and a payload of 450 kilograms, which allows it to carry four passengers plus the pilot.
PRODUCTION ESTIMATIONS
Stellantis and Archer plan to produce 650 Midnight aircraft a year at Covington, but plans are to expand the plant to bring capacity to 2,300 a year.
Stellantis makes it known that it is supporting Archer not only with capital, but also with its own technologies and human skills: "Stellantis employees", reads a statement, "are present in almost all Archer functions including manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, quality, infrastructure and human resources”.
The Midnight aircraft are expected to enter service in 2025.
OTHER PARTNERSHIPS FOR AIR TAXI
Stellantis is not the only car manufacturer attracted by air taxis, which it is thought will revolutionize urban mobility and mitigate the traffic problem, providing citizens with the possibility of moving quickly – and vertically – to airports, stations or other places of interest.
South Korea's Hyundai Motor is also working on the development of eVTOL through a partnership with the air taxi division of Honeywell, a large US company that also deals with aerospace. On the other hand, the French Renault last November launched a collaboration with Airbus, a European company that builds aircraft, on hybrid technologies for cars and planes.
STELLANTIS INVESTMENTS IN CLEAN TECH STARTUPS
Beyond eVTOLs, Stellantis is also focusing on other low-carbon technologies. Stellantis Ventures, the company's $326 million venture capital fund, recently announced that it has invested in clean tech startups such as Lyten (develops lithium-sulfur batteries) and NetZero (produces biochar, a carbonaceous material capable of " trap” carbon dioxide).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-archer-evtol-georgia/ on Mon, 19 Jun 2023 13:56:01 +0000.