Archer to work with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) on first eVTOL aircraft, expected to be unveiled in early 2021

eVTOL air­craft devel­op­er Archer has announced an agree­ment with Fiat Chrysler Auto­mo­biles (FCA), where it will ben­e­fit from FCA’s low-cost sup­ply chain, advanced com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al capa­bil­i­ties and engi­neer­ing and design expe­ri­ence.

In a press release announc­ing the news, FCA — the par­ent com­pa­ny of auto­mo­bile brands such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep® and Ram — has already helped to work on the cock­pit design of Archer’s first air­craft, which is expect­ed to be unveiled lat­er this year.

The new part­ner­ship will also help accel­er­ate Cal­i­for­nia-based Archer’s time­line, as it looks to cre­ate the world’s first all-elec­tric air­line that moves peo­ple through­out the world’s cities in a quick, safe, sus­tain­able and cost-effec­tive man­ner. It added that it intends to start pro­duc­tion of its eVTOL air­craft in 2023.

Brett Adcock, co-founder and co-CEO of Archer, said: “We’ve been hyper-focused on a cus­tomer-first approach to vehi­cle design and air­craft oper­a­tions. Now we are work­ing with a sea­soned, indus­try-lead­ing auto­mo­tive part­ner to lever­age cost ben­e­fits and expe­ri­ence that will allow Archer to pro­duce thou­sands of air­craft reli­ably and afford­ably every sin­gle year.”

Adam Gold­stein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Archer, added: “We are excit­ed to team up with one of the world’s largest auto­mo­tive com­pa­nies on our mis­sion of advanc­ing the ben­e­fits of sus­tain­able air mobil­i­ty.

“This is a first-of-its-kind deal for one of Detroit’s Big Three automak­ers in mov­ing into the urban air mobil­i­ty space. There is now a clear path for Archer to bring mass pro­duc­tion to this indus­try, chang­ing the way peo­ple trav­el in and around cities for­ev­er.”

Archer’s all-elec­tric air­craft will be capa­ble of trav­el­ing dis­tances of up to 60 miles at 150 mph. The part­ner­ship will also see both com­pa­nies work togeth­er to sig­nif­i­cant­ly decrease the cost of pro­duc­tion, enabling Archer to bring afford­ably priced ser­vice to cus­tomers via its ultra-qui­et, high-per­for­mance eVTOL air­craft.

Doug Oster­mann, vice pres­i­dent and head of glob­al busi­ness devel­op­ment of FCA, said: “Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion with­in the trans­porta­tion sec­tor whether on roads or in the air is the future and with any new and rapid­ly devel­op­ing tech­nol­o­gy, scale is impor­tant.

“Our part­ner­ship with Archer has mutu­al ben­e­fits and will enable inno­v­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly trans­porta­tion solu­tions to be brought to mar­ket at an accel­er­at­ed pace.”