Stellantis N.V. and Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) right this moment introduced that Stellantis not too long ago accomplished a sequence of open market purchases of ~8.3 million shares of Archer’s inventory signaling Stellantis’ continued confidence in Archer’s plans to carry electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane to market starting in 2025. Stellantis’ elevated funding in Archer follows CEO Carlos Tavares’ latest go to to Archer’s headquarters and manufacturing amenities in Santa Clara, California.
In January 2023, Stellantis introduced that its purpose was for Stellantis to mass produce Archer’s Midnight plane as its unique contract producer thereby permitting Archer to strengthen its path to commercialization by serving to it keep away from lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} of spending. The development on the primary section of Archer’s high-volume manufacturing facility in Georgia stays on observe to be accomplished later this 12 months. The primary section is a construct out of ~350,000 sq. toes on a ~100 acre web site designed to assist manufacturing of as much as 650 plane yearly, which might make it one of many largest manufacturing amenities by quantity within the plane business.
Archer’s Midnight plane is designed to be secure, sustainable, quiet and carry 4 passengers plus a pilot. Midnight is optimized for back-to-back brief distance journeys of round 20-50 miles, with a charging time of roughly 10 minutes in-between.
“Archer has established itself as a market chief within the electrification of aviation and we consider that collectively we will usher within the subsequent transportation revolution,” stated Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. “This latest transfer by Stellantis indicators our confidence in Archer’s group and the progress we see firsthand by means of our deep partnership.”
“We’re on the cusp of fixing the best way the world strikes within the sky,” stated Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer. “Archer and Stellantis are working aspect by aspect to appreciate a once-in-a-generation alternative to redefine city transportation and ship great worth to the world’s cities and our shareholders.”
Stellantis has been a strategic associate to Archer since 2020 by means of varied collaboration initiatives, and as an investor since 2021. Throughout this time, Archer has leveraged Stellantis’ deep manufacturing, provide chain, and design experience in reference to Archer’s efforts to design, develop, and commercialize its eVTOL plane.