Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) plane manufacturer Archer has announced a deal to outfit a host of airports across the US run by aeronautical fixed-base operator Atlantic Aviation with charging equipment for electric ground transport vehicles and future air taxis.
The agreement calls for Archer to electrify several airports and other Atlantic Aviation facilities with recharging equipment for battery-powered ground vehicles and air taxis like Archer’s Midnight craft. The partnership will involve preparing hubs in key urban centers across the US for next-generation airplanes. Those locations include the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas, Northern California, and South Florida.
The accord follows a similar link-up announced last week by eVTOL developer BETA Technologies to supply several Atlantic Aviation airports on the East and Gulf Coasts with air taxi and ground vehicle batter chargers.
That deal, meanwhile, came after the November alliance between BETA and Archer on co-development of BETA’s open-use, multi-vehicle recharging system as an alternative to the tech eVTOL manufacturer Joby seeks to establish as the air taxi industry standard.
It’s not clear from Archer’s press release on its new partnership with Atlantic how closely BETA will figure as an active participant in their activities – if at all – or simply act as a supplier of recharging gear installed.
Their statement only says “the companies plan to leverage (their) existing relationships with BETA Technologies to install BETA’s interoperable rapid recharging systems.” It adds that tech was “recently endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and is being utilized by several top original equipment manufacturers across the industry.”
In case anybody missed it, the race for the nearly untapped air taxi ground infrastructure market is about to get red hot.
With global eVTOL competitors like Archer, Joby, and Volocopter on track to obtain certification and launch services in 2025, focus will now in large part shift back to ground level. Competitors that have developed their own charging systems – or have adopted and are promoting those of suppliers – are now seeking to dominate preparation of ground infrastructure required to support air taxi operation.
That is clearly a major objective in Archer now moving to equip Atlantic’s airports in major urban centers on both coasts with eVTOL recharging tech. In doing so, it seeks to keep pace with or surpass Joby, which last week announced a $100 million electrification contract of Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.
January 17 Update
As if to underline the above observation about rapidly accelerating competition to equip airports and vertiports with eVTOL charging gear, Joby now in turn has announced its deal to similarly ready Atlantic Aviation facilities with its battery juicing tech.
Several hours after this post was published, the two companies announced they’d agreed to prepare Atlantic airports in “numerous sites in the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, where Joby and Atlantic will initially focus their partnership.” That includes the “installation of Joby’s Global Electric Aviation Charging System.”
Suddenly, Atlantic is looking like the person everyone in town is managing to date.
According to John Redcay, Atlantic’s chief commercial and sustainability officer, the company’s network of airports will be “a technology-agnostic supporter of advanced air mobility.” That, presumably, is why the group is signing contracts with makers or suppliers of different eVTOL charging systems – their rivalry as air taxi makers be damned. Also dismissed in that approach, it seems, is a consistency and continuity of electrification methods required to promote a singe standard for the entire sector to adopt.
The development accentuates the jostling by all major players to gain an advantageous position in the recharger tech tussle, even if makes is hard to imagine Atlantic facilities not winding up tad disorderly as a result.
It remains to be seen just how big a role BETA will play in Archer’s drive to head Joby off for the leadership of the US eVTOL ground charging market, even as it also looks to claim top air taxi position in the skies.
“We are excited to work with Atlantic to help electrify their vast portfolio of high-value aviation assets in America’s most congested cities including the New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco markets,” said Nikhil Goel, Archer’s chief commercial officer. “These initial eVTOLvertiport locations will provide a launching pad for future expansion across Atlantic’s portfolio and ensure that our Midnight aircraft has safe, centrally located landing facilities for our future passengers.”
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