Toyota invests $500 million in air taxi startup Joby Aviation

• It also signals that Toyota — the world's largest automaker by sales — is getting serious about air taxis.

Driving the news: Joby secured the new funds from Toyota in a deal that will bring Toyota's total investment in the eVTOL company to $894 million.

• Toyota will own more than 20% of Joby after the second tranche of funds is fully invested in 2025, Joby CEO and founder JoeBen Bevirt tells Axios.
• The Japanese automaker will also deepen its ongoing manufacturing partnership with Joby.

What they're saying: "This is a collaboration," Bevirt says. "I think both companies see the incredibly exciting potential of using aircraft for daily transportation."

• "Personal air mobility has been a Toyota dream starting with our founder and continuing to our chairman today," Toyota Ventures general partner Jim Adler said in an email. "We are excited about the deepening Toyota/Joby relationship that will make this dream a reality."

What's next: Joby expects to reach production capacity of one eVTOL per month by the end of 2024 and will continue work on its manufacturing expansion, Bevirt says.

• The company's goal is to launch a public service so that users of its app or Uber's app will be able to call an air taxi much like they can currently call a car.