Toyota announced that it will invest an additional $500 million to support the certification and commercial production of Joby’s electric air taxi.
The investment will bring Toyota Motor Corporation’s total investment in Joby to $894 million and will be made in the form of cash for common stock, with the first tranche targeted to close later this year and the second in 2025. Further details of the investment are available via the companies’ regulatory filings with the SEC.
Joby says it continues to make important progress towards commercialization, 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.
Toyota’s additional investment reflects the continued aim of Toyota Motor Corporation’s founding family, starting with Kiichiro Toyoda down to present-day Chairman Akio Toyoda, to realize the dream of air mobility for personal or daily travel as part of its transformation into a mobility company.
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 for the production of 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 totaling $394 million.
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