Air Taxi Featured, Flown at Toyota Center in Japan
November 5, 2024
Flying taxi company Joby Aviation conducted exhibition flights with Toyota in Japan, in the eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) company’s first flights outside the U.S.
The flights and showcasing of the Joby electric aerial vehicle (EAV) were at the Toyota Higashi-Fuji Technical Center in Shizuoka, Japan.
Toyota has been investing in Joby since 2019, starting with Toyota Ventures, in addition to sharing knowledge of the Toyota systems for planning, manufacturing methods and tooling design.
“While the weather is not on our side today, over the past few days our team has flown a number of exhibition flights right here in the skies above us – these are the first flights Joby has ever completed outside the United States, and they mark an incredible milestone on our journey,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby.
“This is a moment we have been looking forward to for a long time and marks a significant milestone on our journey towards making clean air travel an everyday reality. We share Toyota’s vision for the future of air travel and are honored to have had the opportunity to present a glimpse of that future through our exhibition flight in Japan.”
Joby recently announced a public offering of common stock expecting to raise $202 million for the EAV maker.
Joby intends to use the financing to fund its “certification and manufacturing efforts, prepare for commercial operations and for general working capital and other general corporate purposes,” the company stated in a regulatory filing.
That funding followed a $500 million recent investment by Toyota, which brought its total investment in the EAV maker to $894 million.
That initial investment grew to $394 million and Toyota engineers now work side-by-side with Joby staff in California.
Last year, Joby and Toyota signed a long-term agreement for Toyota to supply key powertrain and actuation components for Joby’s EAVs.
The new investment is scheduled in two parts, one later this year and the second in 2025.
The Toyota financing includes plans to establish a manufacturing alliance for the first phase of commercialization.
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The new funding round comes shortly after German eVTOL jet maker Lilium announced it is facing insolvency as two of its subsidiaries apply for self-administered insolvency.
The move was triggered by Lilium being denied a $54 million loan guarantee it was seeking from the government of Bavaria.
Joby recently applied to become the first certified air taxi operator in the United Arab Emirates.
Joby already has a partnership with the UAE through a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Municipalities and Transport Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and the Department of Culture and Tourism, setting Joby up to establish and scale flying taxi services in Abu Dhabi and beyond.
The Joby electric flying taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers and travel up to 200 mph. The company plans to operate its EAVs in New York City and Los Angeles along with its partner Delta Air Lines.
Joby has raised more than $2 billion from Toyota, Delta Air Lines, SK Telecom and Uber and has logged more than 33,00 miles of flight with a full-scale prototype, according to the company.
While Joby is partnered with Delta, Archer Aviation, the other major air taxi company, has a partnership with United Airlines.
