Archer Aviation, BETA Technologies and Macquarie Capital today announced America’s Consortium for Electric Skyways (ACES), a plan to electrify up to 250 air taxi sites across the United States. In the coming decade, the consortium will build the standardized charging foundation required to scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) commercial operations in and around major metropolitan areas, including airports and vertiports in California, Texas, Florida and New York.
“BETA Technologies will supply its purpose-built charging hardware for each site, which is built on the Combined Charging Standard (CCS) that is endorsed by GAMA and adopted almost uniformly across the industry, allowing for interoperability across electric aircraft OEMs,” say the companies in a press release. “Archer Aviation will anchor the network with its plans to launch passenger VTOL air taxi operations in these cities, providing near-term operational certainty across key metro markets. Macquarie Capital will provide strategic advice to the consortium, including helping to arrange the investment capital necessary to fund site acquisition and the subsequent development and construction of these facilities.”
“By building the charging infrastructure needed for commercial operations in the US, the network will directly support Archer and BETA’s participation as selected partners in the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) – bolstering the White House’s push to lead the world in commercializing this next generation of aviation technologies.”
“The eVTOL Integration Pilot Program is about more than just getting electric aircraft flying in American cities – it’s about building the infrastructure ecosystem needed to support commercial operations,” said Dan Edwards, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation. “By bringing 250+ interoperable charging sites in eIPP markets and beyond, America’s Consortium for Electric Skyways is helping to lay the foundation for the United States to win in the next era of advanced aviation.”
“Electric air taxi operations can’t scale without the infrastructure to charge them. That’s why we’re building the backbone to support the next 250 years of electric aviation in America,” said founder & chief executive officer of Archer Aviation, Adam Goldstein. “We’re putting interoperable chargers in the locations where we plan to fly, including the core eIPP markets, and using the industry-adopted charging standard so every operator can share in their usage and distribute the cost across the whole industry. This is how you build the foundation for the next-gen aviation technologies that will transform how Americans move through their cities.”
The charging network creates a shared infrastructure model where multiple operators and use cases run on the same chargers, with Archer accessing the network for passenger air taxi operations during peak operational hours and BETA’s customers using it to support cargo operations and medical transport. The model extends even further at major airports by making CCS-compatible chargers available to airport ground support vehicles, establishing the truly open, shared aviation infrastructure needed to build airports of the future.
Archer Aviation and BETA Technologies are exhibiting at the Farnborough International Airshow from July 20-24. From 12:00 – 12:45 BST on July 21st, Archer Aviation will host a fireside chat at B020 outside of Hall 1 with Archer Founder & CEO, Adam Goldstein, Founder & CEO of BETA Technologies, Kyle Clark, and FAA Associate Administrator for Airports, Dan Edwards to discuss what this partnership means for the future of the eVTOL industry and how it establishes a development path for other markets to follow.
For more information
https://investors.beta.team/news-events/press-releases/detail/110/archer-aviation-beta-technologies-and-macquarie-capital-launch-aces-americas-consortium-for-electric-skyways-to-bring-interoperable-charging-to-250-aviation-sites-across-america-by-2030