Andrew J. Hawkins

The investment builds on last year’s $430 million equity deal and leaves the aviation company with approximately $1 billion in liquidity. Archer says the money will be put toward building out its manufacturing capability in anticipation of launching an air taxi network in Los Angeles in time for the 2026 Olympics. The company is also moving more into the defense space, with plans to next-gen military aircraft for Anduril Industries. This funding round included investments from Blackrock, Willington, and leading institutional developers, Archer says.

That stands for “extended range electric vehicle,” basically plug-in hybrids with a small internal combustion engine to recharge the EV battery for more range. Ram and VW-backed Scout were the first to announce EREV plans, and now the Blue Oval is working on its own, according to Bloomberg. Ford is getting its clock cleaned by Tesla and GM on EV sales, so the automaker is turning to new powertrains to tide customers over while they wait for its Silicon Valley-based skunkworks team to crack the code on cheap EVs.