Joby makes and flies electric air taxi aircraft, quiet emissions-free craft that lift off and land like helicopters but fly like airplanes.
The company plans to serve customers seeking quick flights to big-city airports, as well as the Department of Defense. Joby says it delivered a second aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base last year, having trained Air Force pilots and military mechanics to fly and fix the craft.
Joby said Wednesday it ended the fourth quarter of 2024 with $933 million in cash, not counting an expected Toyota investment of $500 million, to be made in dual installments of $250 million.
However, Joby reported a net loss for the quarter of $246.3 million, comprising a net operating loss of $149.9 million and other losses of $96.4 million.
Compared with the final quarter of 2023, the net loss for the fourth quarter this year grew by $131.2 million.
Besides hailing the Toyota investment, Joby also launched an underwritten public stock offering last year issuing 40 million shares at $5.05 per share.
“At our Ohio facility, we’ll start building aircraft components to support production and aircraft assembly in California,” said Paul Sciarra, Joby’s executive chairman. “With these investments, you can expect our capital expenditure to increase from the $41 million we spent in 2024, as we build out our facilities in both Marina (Calif.) and Ohio.”
A recent visit during business hours to the company’s facility at 3571 Concorde Drive, near the Dayton airport, showed some activity, with at least five vehicles parked on site at the time. A worker wearing a construction helmet could be seen outside the building at one point.
Several workers at the facility greeted a Dayton Daily News photographer Wednesday, but they didn’t permit him take photographs within the building. A Joby spokeswoman declined to make anyone available to talk about the company’s work and said she had no announcements.
Production of components for Joby electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) will begin locally early in 2025, Greg Bowles, Joby’s head of government relations and regulatory affairs, told the Dayton Daily News last year.
That assurance, in August 2024, came about 11 months after Joby’s historic announcement that it would bring scaled production of its electric flying rotor-craft to the community, and about six months after Joby said it had selected a former U.S. Postal Service facility near airport for the work.
Joby says it is the only eVTOL company to deliver aircraft from a production line. The business has five craft in its test fleet.
Scott Adams, Dayton chief building official, said Joby has been issued permits for renovating the building. He said he did not have a timeline for completion of Joby’s planned renovations.
Shares of Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) closed Wednesday at $6.70, up 20 cents or just over 3%. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $4.50 to $10.72.
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