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Stellantis to help build Archer’s Midnight aircraft and provide up to $150 million in equity capital

Archer Avi­a­tion and Stel­lan­tis N.V have agreed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand their part­ner­ship, with both com­pa­nies join­ing forces to man­u­fac­ture Archer’s eVTOL air­craft Mid­night.

Stel­lan­tis has been a strate­gic part­ner to Archer since 2020 through var­i­ous col­lab­o­ra­tion ini­tia­tives, and an investor since 2021. The glob­al auto­mo­tive man­u­fac­tur­er will con­tribute advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nol­o­gy and exper­tise, expe­ri­enced per­son­nel and cap­i­tal to enable the air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ing.

As a fur­ther sign of its com­mit­ment, Stel­lan­tis will pro­vide up to $150 mil­lion in equi­ty cap­i­tal for poten­tial draw by Archer at its dis­cre­tion in 2023 and 2024, sub­ject to achieve­ment of cer­tain busi­ness mile­stones which Archer expects to occur in 2023.

Stel­lan­tis also intends to increase its strate­gic share­hold­ing through future pur­chas­es of Archer stock in the open mar­ket. These actions, along with the oth­er ele­ments of this expand­ed part­ner­ship, will enable Stel­lan­tis to become a long-term, cor­ner­stone investor in Archer.

Adam Gold­stein, founder and CEO of Archer, said: “Stel­lan­tis’ con­tin­ued recog­ni­tion of Archer’s progress toward com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion, and today’s com­mit­ment of sig­nif­i­cant resources to build the Mid­night air­craft with us, places Archer in a strong posi­tion to be first to mar­ket. Our two com­pa­nies are tak­ing these impor­tant steps togeth­er to realise a once-in-a-gen­er­a­tion oppor­tu­ni­ty to rede­fine urban trans­porta­tion.”

Stel­lan­tis N.V. is one of the world’s lead­ing automak­ers and a mobil­i­ty provider. Its brands include Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Cit­roën, Dodge, DS Auto­mo­biles, Fiat, Jeep®, Lan­cia, Maserati, Opel, Peu­geot, Ram, Vaux­hall, Free2move and Leasys.

Dur­ing the time work­ing togeth­er, Archer has lever­aged Stel­lan­tis’ deep man­u­fac­tur­ing, sup­ply chain, and design exper­tise in con­nec­tion with Archer’s efforts to design, devel­op, and com­mer­cialise its eVTOL air­craft.

Stel­lan­tis’ con­tri­bu­tion will strength­en Archer’s path to com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion by help­ing it avoid hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars of spend­ing dur­ing the ramp-up phase. The goal is for Stel­lan­tis to mass pro­duce Archer’s eVTOL air­craft as its exclu­sive con­tract man­u­fac­tur­er

Car­los Tavares, Stel­lan­tis CEO, added: “We’ve been work­ing close­ly with Archer for the past two years, and I am con­tin­u­al­ly impressed by their inge­nu­ity and unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to deliv­er.

“Deep­en­ing our part­ner­ship with Archer as a strate­gic investor with plans for grow­ing our share­hold­ing demon­strates how Stel­lan­tis is push­ing the bound­aries to pro­vide sus­tain­able free­dom of mobil­i­ty, from the road to the sky. Sup­port­ing Archer with our man­u­fac­tur­ing exper­tise is anoth­er exam­ple of how Stel­lan­tis will lead the way the world moves.”

Stel­lan­tis will work with Archer to stand up Archer’s recent­ly announced man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty in Cov­ing­ton, Geor­gia, where the com­pa­nies plan to begin man­u­fac­tur­ing the Mid­night air­craft in 2024.

Unveiled in Novem­ber 2022, Mid­night is designed to have an expect­ed pay­load of over 1,000 pounds, trans­port­ing four pas­sen­gers plus a pilot. With a range of 100 miles, the air­craft will pro­vide back-to-back short dis­tance trips of around 20 miles, with a charg­ing time of approx­i­mate­ly 10 min­utes in-between.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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