Toyota Moto and Joby Aviation came together at Toyota’s Higashi-Fuji Technical Center (Shizuoka, Japan) to assert their collective passion and ambition for air mobility in a gathering that included executives from both companies, Akio Toyoda, the chairman of the Toyota Group, and Joby CEO and founder, JoeBen Bevirt, along with Joby’s air taxi, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL).

Since its founding, Toyota has been working to realize a society in which everyone can move freely. About 100 years ago, in 1925, Sakichi Toyoda, founder of the Toyota Group, offered a prize to encourage the development of a storage battery that could provide enough performance “to fly an airplane across the Pacific Ocean.” Since then, Toyota has continued to focus on the challenge of air mobility through the generations.

Toyota Motor Corporation founder Kiichiro Toyoda also expressed a strong interest in the aircraft business, making prototypes of helicopters and aircraft components. After World War II, among other developments, Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda was involved in the joint development of the world’s first electronically controlled aero piston engine with an American company at Toyota’s Higashi Fuji Technical Center, which could be described as the birthplace of Toyota’s development of air mobility. Today, Sakichi’s dream carries on, with batteries seen as a viable source of power for eVTOL.

An eVTOL is a type of aircraft designed for short-range, high-frequency operations suitable for the on-demand air taxi market, which is expected to be utilized by commuters, business travelers, and tourists in urban areas. Combining elements from helicopters, drones, and small aircraft, eVTOLs aim to excel in reliability, environmental performance (zero operating emissions), quiet operation, operational and maintenance costs, enhanced safety features, and more.