Dive Brief:
- Archer Aviation broke ground on its facility in Covington, Georgia, where it will produce its flagship electric air taxis in partnership with Stellantis, the company announced last week.
- The facility will span 350,000-square-feet and produce up to 650 aircraft per year, with room to expand and support production of up to 2,300 aircraft annually. The air taxis, known as Midnight, are expected to be used by United Airlines in 2025.
- “We are thrilled to be taking this next important step as we work closely with Stellantis to ramp up our high-volume manufacturing capabilities at this new facility in Covington,” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Archer Aviation is leveraging relationships with major automakers to supercharge its manufacturing capabilities. Goldstein said on an earnings call Thursday that the Covington facility will be the “industry’s first high volume eVTOL manufacturing facility.”
Archer and Stellantis selected Covington for its site after a comprehensive survey of potential markets across the U.S. Goldstein said the companies considered “the availability and diversity of talent in the local labor market, ability to conduct seamless flight test operations, construction costs and logistics.”
The construction will be in two phases, Goldstein said on the call. In the first phase, the facility will span 350,000 square feet and produce 650 aircraft yearly. The second phase will build out an additional 500,000 to 800,000 square feet, which will give the facility the ability to produce up to 2,300 aircraft yearly.
“So while the factory is being built to produce a lot of vehicles even in year one, there’s still a lot of moving parts that we have to connect in order to really make that happen,” Goldstein said. “And so, we are going to balance our production against many other factors and to really just ensure that the vehicles that come off the line are immediately put into service.”
Stellantis will provide up to $150 million in equity capital subject to Archer’s ability to achieve certain business milestones. The capital can be accessed “if and when we need it,” Goldstein said, “with our goal being to minimize dilution.”
The total state incentive for the Covington project is 33% of the planned investment. Archer will invest $118 million over 10 years, according to the press release.
Archer has built another facility near its headquarters in San Jose, California. Goldstein said the San Jose facility will come online in April, and will produce the company’s first 6 to 10 planes for testing.
