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BETA Technologies “Expands Charging Network by 200% During 2024”

U.S Elec­tric air­craft com­pa­ny, BETA Tech­nolo­gies, announced this week it has expand­ed — sig­nif­i­cant­ly ‑the com­pa­ny’s elec­tric charg­ing net­work dur­ing 2024, installing charg­ers at 30 new sites. The net­work now includes 46 sites across 22 states with 23 more in devel­op­ment for pub­lic and pri­vate use across the east, west and gulf coasts, reports a press release. 

The release explains, “The BETA-designed charg­ers are mul­ti­modal and inter­op­er­a­ble, capa­ble of pow­er­ing elec­tric air­craft and ground vehi­cles alike. They are also UL-cer­ti­fied fol­low­ing exten­sive safe­ty inspec­tion and test­ing, con­firm­ing com­pli­ance with indus­try and con­sumer stan­dards. The charg­ers utilise the Com­bined Charg­ing Stan­dard (CCS), which is endorsed by the Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Man­u­fac­tur­ers Asso­ci­a­tion and has been adopt­ed by top OEMs across the elec­tric avi­a­tion indus­try.” 

It goes on, “These charg­ers allows the deploy­ment of low-cost elec­tric air­craft, which will unlock access for all types of com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try, from enabling air taxi ser­vices in urban areas to revi­tal­is­ing region­al air­ports for med­ical, e‑commerce and longer-range pas­sen­ger flights.” 

Com­pa­nies across the indus­try, includ­ing Archer, Sig­na­ture, Atlantic Avi­a­tion, AvFlight, the State of Michi­gan as well as region­al and munic­i­pal air­ports, have pur­chased and installed BETA’s charg­ers as a way to pow­er their pro­grams or pre­pare for the future of elec­tric avi­a­tion.

Nate Ward, BETA’s Charge Net­work Lead, com­ment­ed, “From the out­set, we had this idea of cre­at­ing charg­ers that could sup­port the entire indus­try, and over the course of the past year, we’ve seen that idea real­ly begin to find trac­tion.”

The com­pa­ny has been build­ing its net­work since 2020, and through­out last year, it more than dou­bled its sites, bring­ing charg­ers online in 30 loca­tions. 

Present­ly, these charg­ers are online and avail­able for elec­tric air­craft and ground vehi­cles in Alaba­ma, Arkansas, Cal­i­for­nia, Con­necti­cut, Flori­da, Geor­gia, Louisiana, Mary­land, Mass­a­chu­setts, Maine, Mis­sis­sip­pi, Mis­souri, New Hamp­shire, New York, North Car­oli­na, Ohio, Penn­syl­va­nia, South Car­oli­na, Ver­mont, Vir­ginia and West Vir­ginia. 

The release con­tin­ues, “In 2025, BETA plans to con­tin­ue bring­ing addi­tion­al charg­ers online in part­ner­ship with air­ports, FBOs, states, and OEM part­ners across the U.S., with an eye toward bring­ing increased func­tion­al­i­ty and access to both met­ro­pol­i­tan and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties in the future.”

The company’s infra­struc­ture efforts will be expand­ing out­side the U.S in 2025 to sup­port mul­ti­ple inter­na­tion­al mar­kets. 

BETA has also devel­oped the MiniCube, a mobile solu­tion designed for in-hangar use. With a small­er form fac­tor and cast­er wheels for easy move­ment, the MiniCube is a high-util­i­ty, steady charge solu­tion. 

(Cred­it: BETA Tech­nolo­gies)

Mean­while, just before Christ­mas, the com­pa­ny announced that the New Zealand Air Ambu­lance Ser­vice (NZAAS) has placed a deposit-backed order for the ALIA VTOL for mis­sions across the coun­try begin­ning in 2028. This includes the pur­chase of two ALIA eVTOLs and options for a fur­ther ten. 

NZAAS cur­rent­ly oper­ates at six bases across New Zealand employ­ing light jets and Kingair tur­bo­props, all equipped with state-of-the-art avion­ics and aeromed­ical out­fit­ting. The ALIA eVTOL offers a reli­able, low-cost and qui­et plat­form for air trans­port, well equipped to nav­i­gate the diverse ter­rain of the coun­try.

This marks BETA’s sec­ond New Zealand-based cus­tomer, fol­low­ing a mul­ti-phase CTOL order from Air New Zealand. 

Patrick Buck­les, BETA’s Sales Lead, com­ment­ed, “Our biggest aim with this tech­nol­o­gy is to increase access and unlock new and crit­i­cal routes. With its low oper­at­ing costs, region­al range, and run­way inde­pen­dence, we are excit­ed for the ALIA eVTOL to help NZAAS do just that through­out the North and South Islands.” 

Annabel Too­good, CEO of Sky­line Health Care, added, “This inno­v­a­tive solu­tion rede­fines air ambu­lance oper­a­tions, allow­ing us to under­take inter hos­pi­tal trans­fers from hos­pi­tal to hos­pi­tal in a safe, and car­bon-neu­tral plat­form which will increase res­cue heli­copter avail­abil­i­ty for pre-hos­pi­tal mis­sions and offer patient trans­fers at near­ly half the cost of tra­di­tion­al res­cue heli­copters.”

She con­tin­ued, “By inte­grat­ing eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy, we aim to bridge the gap for rur­al and vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties. This col­lab­o­ra­tion is a trans­for­ma­tive step for­ward for health­care trans­porta­tion.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.beta.team/

(Top image: BETA ALIA)

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