Archer Aviation is partnering with ride-hailing and parking company Kakao Mobility to offer electric air taxi flights in South Korea starting in 2026, if the company can develop its planes in time.
The move to South Korea is part of an international strategy that will also see Archer launch commercially in the UAE and India in the same year. Competitor Joby Aviation is also targeting South Korea in partnership with SK Telecom and UT, a joint venture between Uber and T Map Mobility, which integrates air and ground travel.
Under the terms of Archer’s latest agreement, Kakao Mobility plans to own and operate Archer’s Midnight electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to be able to offer air taxi rides to the more than 30 million passengers. registered users on its Kakao T mobile application, from Seoul. .
Archer says the Midnight aircraft has a range of 100 miles and is designed for urban environments where the average trip is about 20 miles. The vehicle has an expected payload of more than 1,000 pounds and can carry four passengers in addition to the pilot. However, the vehicle is still in development and has not yet received FAA certification.
“The vision is clear: reduce hours lost in traffic and improve daily travel with an electric air taxi service powered by Archer’s Midnight aircraft,” said Christopher SungWook Chang, senior vice president of Kakao Mobility, in a press release.
Kakao had already signed a similar agreement with British eVTOL startup Vertical Aerospace. Neither company responded to TechCrunch’s request for more information on whether this deal is still active.
Kakao and Archer are also jointly participating in the K-UAM (Korea Urban Air Mobility) Grand Challenge, an initiative led by the South Korean government to develop and test commercial UAM technologies that can solve problems such as traffic congestion and air pollution. ‘air. The culmination of this challenge will be a public demonstration of the Archer aircraft in South Korea in late 2024.
To support Archer’s initial commercialization efforts in Korea, Kakao is providing the company with $7 million this year, with a second installment planned for the first quarter of 2025.
In total, Kakao agreed to purchase up to 50 Midnight aircraft, worth approximately $250 million, including advance payments. Archer did not provide further details on when it plans to fulfill all 50 orders, or even the first ones. The startup-turned-SPAC has struck a deal with automaker Stellantis to mass produce its eVTOLs and grant the company access to up to $150 million in additional capital. That said, Archer still has to bear all costs associated with this collaboration.
In the first quarter of 2024, Archer spent $83.5 million on R&D. Since its inception, the company has suffered approximately $807.4 million in losses, according to regulatory filings. Those losses will only increase as Archer aims to deliver vehicles and build air taxi networks – which won’t be profitable for some time – over the next few years.
Archer also shared plans to launch air taxi services in Miami and San Francisco in 2025 in partnership with United Airlines and fixed base operator Atlantic, but the company did not provide TechCrunch with updates on these planned launches.
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