Stellantis has recently completed a series of open market purchases of around 8.3 million shares of Archer stock, signalling its continued confidence in Archer's plans to bring eVTOL aircraft to market beginning in 2025. Stellantis' increased investment follows a recent visit by CEO Carlos Tavares to Archer's headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Santa Clara, California.

In January 2023, the goal was for Stellantis to mass produce Archer's Midnight aircraft as its exclusive contract manufacturer, thereby allowing Archer to strengthen its path to commercialisation by helping it avoid hundreds of millions of dollars of spending. The construction on the first phase of Archer's high-volume manufacturing facility in Georgia remains on track to be completed later this year. The first phase is a build out of about 350,000sq ft on a roughly 100 acre site designed to support production of up to 650 aircraft annually, which would make it one of the largest manufacturing facilities by volume in the aircraft industry.

Archer's Midnight aircraft is designed to be safe, sustainable, quiet and carry four passengers plus a pilot. It is optimised for back-to-back short distance trips of around 20-50 miles, with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes in between.

"Archer has established itself as a market leader in the electrification of aviation, and we believe that together we can usher in the next transportation revolution," says Tavares. "This recent move by Stellantis signals our confidence in Archer's team and the progress we see first-hand through our deep partnership."

"We are on the cusp of changing the way the world moves in the sky," adds Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein. "Archer and Stellantis are working side by side to realise a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine urban transportation and deliver tremendous value to the world's cities and our shareholders."

Stellantis has been a strategic partner to Archer since 2020 through various collaboration initiatives and as an investor since 2021.