Toyota invest $500 million in Joby Aviation to help develop electric air taxis

Toyota Motor Corporation Operating Officer Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa and Joby Aviation's founder and CEO, JoeBen Bevirt, strengthen their relationship with Toyota’s announced $500M investment in Joby, marked by a formal signing ceremony at Toyota’s North American regional headquarters in Plano, Texas.

Joby Aviation, a company developing electric air taxis for commercial passenger service, announced that it will receive $500m from Toyota. This investment by Toyota is to support the certification and commercial production of Joby’s electric air taxi, to realise the two companies’ shared vision of air mobility.

“Today’s investment builds on nearly seven years of collaboration between our companies,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO, Joby Aviation. “The knowledge and support shared by Toyota have been instrumental in Joby’s success and we look forward to deepening our relationship as we deliver on our shared vision for the future of air travel.”

The total amount of investment from Toyota to Joby after this latest announcement will be $894m. The investment will be made in two equal tranches and subject to standard regulatory approvals.

Why is Toyota investing in Joby?

Since 2019, in addition to monetary investments, Toyota has been investing time and human resources to share its knowledge of the Toyota Production System via process planning, manufacturing method development, and tooling design. Toyota engineers now work side-by-side with the Joby team in California, and, in 2023, the two companies signed a long-term agreement for Toyota to supply key powertrain and actuation components to produce Joby’s aircraft.

Toyota’s relationship with Joby began through an initial investment made by Toyota Ventures, the early-stage venture capital arm of Toyota that explores and identifies disruptive technologies and companies for investment opportunities and provides support for portfolio companies. Toyota Motor Corporation subsequently completed investments totalling $394 million.

Joby continues to make important progress towards commercialisation, recently rolling its third aircraft off its pilot production line in Marina, California, and breaking ground on an expanded facility in California that will more than double the Company’s manufacturing footprint. In August 2024, it was confirmed that the fourth of five stages of the type certification process is now more than one-third complete on the Joby side.