Though companies have now established a JV, Toyota’s additional funding still requires “final approval” of a manufacturing deal.
Air taxi developer Joby Aviation and Toyota Motor Company have formed a joint business that is majority owned by Toyota for the purpose of eventually manufacturing Joby’s in-development S4 electric air taxi, the companies said on 30 June.
Creation of the JV – called Joby Toyota Aero Manufacturing Preparation Company – is related to conditions required before Toyota completes a second planned $250 million investment in Joby, according to a 2025 funding agreement between the firms.
“We expect the second $250 million tranche of this investment to close in Q4, subject to the final approval of the manufacturing supply agreement,” Joby told FlightGlobal on 1 July.
The companies formed their “strategic manufacturing alliance” with an initial $2 million investment “for the purpose of establishing an entity to manufacture the company’s S4 Series eVTOL aircraft”, a securities filing says.
Toyota owns 51% of the JV after purchasing roughly $1 million of its shares for about $1 million, while Joby bought the remaining 49% for just shy of $1 million, documents show. The JV is overseen by five directors – three appointed by Toyota and two by Joby.
“The strategic alliance will initially focus on establishing the groundwork for commercial production and advancing manufacturing excellence, with particular emphasis on further improving productivity, quality and cost,” Joby says.
Securities filings show that many aspects of the JV remain unsettled. A stockholders agreement filed by Joby with the US Securities and Exchange Commission lays out broad strokes of the partnership but notes that Joby and Toyota intend later to “amend and restate the agreement in its entirety”, with more detail.
As the agreement now stands, the next step involves Joby and Toyota negotiating “an exclusive manufacturing supply agreement”. Under that deal, the partners intend to grant the JV “exclusive rights” to manufacturer the S4, with Joby licensing its S4 intellectual property and Toyota licensing its manufacturing IP to the joint business.
The stockholders agreement also sets milestones at which the companies agree to further fund the JV, though funding amounts remain unsettled.
Those milestones include Joby completing a “formal multi-disciplined” Critical Design Review to confirm the S4 “is mature, complete and satisfies all performance, airworthiness and certification requirements, thereby supporting progression to full-scale fabrication, assembly integration and testing”, the document says.
The next funding milestone is the FAA’s issuance for the S4 of a “Type Inspection Authorization” allowing Joby to begin “conformity inspections, ground tests and flight tests” for the certification programme.
The final round of funding is conditioned on the FAA certificating the aircraft.
Both firms retain rights, under certain circumstances, to terminate the partnership. Toyota, for instance, can shutter it if Joby fails to “maintain” FAA certification.
Toyota in 2024 agreed to invest up to $500 million in Joby, with the funding coming in two equal tranches.
Toyota made the first $250 million installment in 2025. The second is subject to “execution of a strategic alliance” related to manufacturing.
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