Joby Aviation and Toyota form joint venture to prepare electric air taxi manufacturing

Joby Aviation and Toyota Motor Corporation have launched the initial phase of a strategic manufacturing alliance by establishing a joint venture focused on realizing air mobility. The companies said the new venture will combine Joby’s progress in electric aviation with Toyota’s experience in manufacturing systems and operational excellence, with an emphasis on scaling production quality, cost, and productivity.

In a joint announcement issued June 30, the two firms said the alliance will start with building the groundwork for commercial production and advancing manufacturing excellence. They highlighted improvements in productivity, quality, and cost, indicating a shift from prototype development toward the industrial processes needed for aircraft output at scale.

The companies also tied the effort to future aircraft certification and demand growth. Toyota and Joby said the alliance will support expansion of Joby’s production capacity to backstop the process of certifying its electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft and to meet anticipated growth in demand.

Joby founder and chief executive JoeBen Bevirt called Toyota’s involvement longstanding, saying the automaker has been “by Joby’s side for nearly a decade,” offering guidance and support as the company built manufacturing foundations. Bevirt said the new joint venture reflects the strength of the relationship and shared confidence in the opportunity, adding that the companies aim to make aerial mobility an everyday reality.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda framed the partnership as consistent with the company’s long-running mobility philosophy. He said Toyota views air mobility as a natural extension of its focus on providing mobility for all, “from the ground into the sky,” and described the collaboration with Joby as an important step toward a future mobility society.

The agreement positions Toyota to apply its manufacturing know-how to an emerging category of aircraft. Joby described itself as developing an all-electric eVTOL air taxi, intending to both operate service in cities globally and sell its aircraft to other operators and partners. For Toyota, the initiative aligns with its stated emphasis on next-generation mobility and sustainable development programs that it says aim to reduce environmental and societal impacts.

While the announcement did not provide a timeline for when commercial manufacturing would begin, the stated focus on groundwork suggests near-term work on factory readiness and production processes. By calling out productivity, quality, and cost, the companies are effectively indicating that they want to industrialize how eVTOL aircraft are built, not just how they are designed and tested.

Still, several details are not included in the public statement. The companies did not disclose the joint venture’s structure beyond saying it was established as part of the strategic manufacturing alliance, and they did not specify where the manufacturing expansion would take place, what portion of the production plan the venture will control, or how quickly production capacity could increase relative to certification milestones.

Looking ahead, investors and industry watchers will likely focus on what the joint venture enables in practice, particularly progress on manufacturing readiness and any subsequent agreements that would deepen the alliance. The companies also cautioned that the initiative includes forward-looking statements subject to risks, including negotiation and execution of additional agreements, possible regulatory certification delays, and changing market conditions.