Archer closes financing and building deals for Georgia factory
Archer has closed agreements with Synovus Bank and Evans General Contractors for the financing and construction of its Covington, Georgia manufacturing facility.
Today’s news secures at least $65m in financing — a substantial majority of the cost of the first phase of construction. The remainder will come largely from previously announced incentives from the state of Georgia and Archer’s partnership with Stellantis.
The firm is determined to create “the most capital efficient path to scaled manufacturing”. A focus visible through its partnerships with tier one aerospace suppliers like Honeywell and Safran which streamline the manufacturing and assembly process.
Adam Goldstein, Archer’s founder and CEO said: “The ability to manufacture eVTOL aircraft at scale is critical to building a successful business in this industry and Archer continues to maintain a significant lead on this front. Today, we’re taking another major step forward on our manufacturing buildout by securing a design-build agreement and financing agreement for the world’s first, and largest by volume, eVTOL manufacturing facility.”
Work on the first 350,000 sqft phase of the facility underway. It will support production of up to 650 aircraft per year, which would make it the world’s largest eVTOL aircraft manufacturing facility by volume, said Archer.
Goldstein added: “Consistent with our capital efficient strategy of getting to commercialisation, we’ve achieved attractive terms on the project. These agreements, along with our already strong partnership with Stellantis, give us the flexibility to ramp up our capacity and become the leading scale manufacturer of eVTOL aircraft in the world.”
Initial construction has already begun on the 350,000sqft phase one build in Covington, Georgia.
In selecting Synovus Bank and Evans General Contractors as partners for the Covington project, Archer considered a range of companies with relevant expertise the southeast US. Goldstein added: “We are committed long-term partners to the community in Covington, Georgia, and we are thrilled to be working with companies who share our vision of having the world’s leading, state-of-the-art eVTOL manufacturing facility right here in the United States.”
Phase one of Archer’s high-volume manufacturing facility is on target to be completed in 2024 ahead of Midnight’s planned entry into service in 2025. Phase two of the facility provides the capability to expand the operation to approximately 900,000sqft to support long-term production targets of over 2,000 aircraft per year.
