{"id":118500,"date":"2021-01-14T10:22:39","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T18:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/fiat-chrysler-plans-to-mass-produce-flying-cars-by-2023"},"modified":"2021-01-14T10:22:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T18:22:39","slug":"fiat-chrysler-plans-to-mass-produce-flying-cars-by-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/fiat-chrysler-plans-to-mass-produce-flying-cars-by-2023","title":{"rendered":"Fiat Chrysler plans to mass produce flying cars by 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of electric aviation\u2019s greatest challenges (beyond safety certification) is mass production. Designing a working prototype is now table stakes in this industry. As Tesla found out<\/a>, heavy manufacturing at scale can easily bankrupt even the most well-funded companies.<\/p>\n

To solve this problem, Archer turned to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), which produces about 4 million cars per year at its 100 manufacturing facilities and 40 R&D centers<\/a>. FCA described it as a mutually beneficial arrangement<\/a>: It gains experience electrifying vehicles (where it lags behind), and Archer gains access to low-cost manufacturing expertise. FCA already helped design the aircraft\u2019s cockpit and will allow the production of \u201cthousands of aircraft\u201d per year, according to a company spokesperson. The first aircraft is scheduled to be revealed in early 2021 with the first public flights in 2024.<\/p>\n

Delays are likely given the complexity of launching, literally, a new vehicle. But the announcement fulfills the initial prediction made last year by John Hansman, director of MIT\u2019s International Center for Air Transportation: \u201cYou\u2019ve seen some shakeup in electric aviation, but also see it get closer to reality\u201d in 2020, he said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s clear there will be the emergence of a new class of electric airplanes. In 2021, you\u2019ll see hybrid and battery aircraft in service or close to being in service.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of electric aviation\u2019s greatest challenges (beyond safety certification) is mass production. Designing a working prototype is now table stakes in this industry. As Tesla found out, heavy manufacturing at scale can easily bankrupt even the most well-funded companies. To solve this problem, Archer turned to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), which produces about 4 million [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainability","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}