Two companies racing to develop electric aircraft are teaming up.
Eve Air Mobility, which was founded by the Brazilian airplane manufacturer Embraer, said on Tuesday that it planned to outfit its battery-powered planes under development with electric pusher motors made by Beta Technologies, a Vermont start-up. The motors drive a propeller in the rear of the aircraft.
The deal gives Beta another source of revenue as it works on its own electric aircraft. Beta previously struck deals to supply technology to other companies. Beta and Eve hope to have their first aircraft certified in or by 2027.
“It’s a huge deal for us,” Kyle Clark, Beta’s founder and chief executive, said in an interview. Beta estimates that the deal could be worth up to $1 billion over 10 years. About two-thirds of that amount would come from selling the motors and the other third from servicing them, Mr. Clark said.
Beta conducted an initial public offering last month and is valued at more than $6 billion. Several Wall Street analysts have expressed optimism about its prospects in part because of its plans to both manufacture aircraft and supply parts.
“Beta’s premier partners and its role as a supplier for other industry peers underscore its leading role,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note on Monday, comparing the company to a “young Tesla.” Beta will issue quarterly financial results on Thursday.
The company, based in South Burlington, Vt., is working on developing a small electric aircraft that takes off and lands like a normal airplane. Beta plans to sell that aircraft to businesses that specialize in cargo and emergency medical services, though the plane can also be outfitted to carry passengers. The company is also working on an aircraft that can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, but cruise like a plane.
Beta has established various partnerships. Its customers include UPS, Air New Zealand and Bristow Group, which provides helicopter transportation to offshore energy companies and search-and-rescue services. This year, GE Aerospace said it would invest $300 million in Beta, and the two companies are working on developing hybrid technology that would allow planes to be powered by electricity and jet fuel.
In addition to its work on motors and aircraft, Beta makes battery packs and software and has built dozens of charging stations for those aircraft.
Eve, which is publicly traded but mostly owned by Embraer, has taken a different approach. The company, which is developing an aircraft capable of vertical and horizontal flight, has sought to use existing technology wherever possible.
Eve’s plane uses batteries from BAE Systems, avionics from Garmin, external lighting from Honeywell Aerospace and motors that will lift its aircraft from Nidec Aerospace. Beta’s motors will propel the plane once it is in the air.
“They’ve developed a great capability engine on the pusher, and this is why we saw that it was the right move to make,” Johann Bordais, Eve’s chief executive, said in an interview.
Beta hopes to certify a version of its electric pusher motor that it will use on its own planes in the first half of next year, Mr. Clark said. The company plans to sell that motor’s successor, which he said would be substantially more powerful, to Eve.
Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.
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