SANTA CRUZ: Japanese car giant Toyota has decided to invest $500 million into electric taxi company Joby Aviation and plans to form a strategic manufacturing alliance with the firm.
The funding, which will be made for common stock, is expected to come in two equal tranches. The investment will bring the automaker’s total investment in the Santa Cruz, California-based Joby to $894 million.
“Our experience has been beyond our expectations in terms of the amount that they’ve leaned in with engineering expertise and processes and quality procedures and all of the details that Toyota is known for,” Joby CEO and founder JoeBen Bevirt says.
Details of the coming manufacturing alliance are still coming, and both Joby and Toyota declined to share more information. According to a press release engineers of Toyota are currently working side by side with Joby’s team to share insight into Toyota’s production and manufacturing.
The funding is aimed to support the certification and production of Joby’s electric air taxis. Furthermore, the two companies share a similar vision for the future of air mobility.
“In order to have the impact that both Joby and Toyota are hoping to have, this can’t be a niche business. It needs to be something that is used by millions of people on a daily basis,” Bevirt says.
Toyota Ventures founder and general partner Jim Adler said that the crucial component of their visions is that the sort of electric air taxis that Joby and Toyota hope to produce will be accessible to a wide array of people and not just a privileged class.
The company is also working toward autonomous flight, in June. It is also pursuing hydrogen-powered flight. The company successfully completed a more than 520-mile test flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft in June this year.
