Electric air taxis are edging closer to everyday reality, and the latest sign is a bold infrastructure play rather than a new aircraft reveal. Toyota-backed Joby Aviation is laying out plans for 25 dedicated vertiport sites across the United States, betting that convenient places to take off and land will matter as much as the vehicles themselves. The strategy aims to turn familiar urban fixtures like parking garages into quiet launchpads for short, on-demand flights that bypass clogged highways.
The move signals a shift in the air taxi conversation from futuristic renderings to the nuts and bolts of where passengers will actually board. By pairing deep-pocketed automotive backing with a partner steeped in parking and payments, Joby is trying to solve the “first gate” problem of urban air mobility: without a network of accessible vertiports, even the most advanced aircraft will stay grounded.
The Toyota-backed bet behind Joby’s air taxi push
Joby Aviation has long pitched itself as more than a niche aircraft maker, and its financial backing reflects that ambition. Toyota Motor Corporation has emerged as a central supporter, with the automaker announcing an investment of $500 million in new funding for Joby Aviation, a figure also described as $500 m in the same disclosure. That level of commitment positions Toyota not just as a supplier or minor partner but as a strategic force shaping how Joby’s aircraft and services are designed, manufactured, and integrated into broader transportation systems.
For Toyota, the partnership is a way to extend its mobility footprint into the sky, while for Joby Aviation the capital and manufacturing expertise are fuel for rapid scaling. Earlier this year, Joby announced that, In May, it closed the first $250 million tranche of a strategic investment from Toyota, a sum also described as $250 million, to support the ramp-up of production in the United States. That funding is directly tied to plans to double manufacturing capacity, a prerequisite if Joby is to populate a 25-site vertiport network with enough aircraft to make air taxis feel like a reliable option rather than a novelty.
From Santa Cruz to the skies: Joby’s vertiport blueprint
Joby Aviation is not a faceless aerospace giant but a California-based transportation company rooted in the coastal city of Santa Cruz, where it has been developing an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for commercial passenger service. The company describes itself as Joby Aviation, Inc, listed on the NYSE under the ticker JOBY, and it has framed its mission as building a new layer of clean, quiet urban transport. That local identity has not insulated it from competitive pressure: Santa Cruz’s Joby Aviation has sued main rival Archer, alleging corporate espionage, even as both companies race to secure the infrastructure needed for nationwide service.
The vertiport plan is Joby’s answer to that infrastructure race. California-based Joby Aviation, a prominent figure in the emerging electric air taxi industry, has laid out a strategy to create 25 vertiport sites across the United States as part of its expansion into urban air mobility. The company’s own framing emphasizes that these locations are not just helipads with a new name but integrated hubs designed to handle passenger flow, charging, and digital operations in a way that makes short-hop flights feel as routine as ordering a rideshare.
Turning parking lots into launchpads with Metropolis
To pull off a 25-site rollout without spending years on greenfield construction, Joby is leaning on an unlikely but logical ally: a parking and payments specialist. In a joint announcement, Joby, Metropolis Announce Partnership to Develop 25 Vertiport Sites Across the United States, outlining a plan to repurpose existing parking infrastructure into air taxi stations. The initiative is framed as a way to accelerate deployment by using structures that already sit close to where people live, work, and travel, rather than pushing vertiports to the fringes of metropolitan areas.
The practical version of that idea is already taking shape. Joby Aviation, an air taxi maker based in the seaside town of Santa Cruz, has struck a deal with Metropolis Technologi to turn US parking lots into flying taxi stations, tapping garages that can support heavy electrical loads and passenger amenities. The initiative will leverage Metropolis’s network of parking locations as prime sites for the new infrastructure, effectively transforming familiar concrete ramps into multi-level mobility hubs where cars, scooters, and air taxis share the same footprint.
How 25 vertiports could reshape urban trips
The promise of 25 vertiports is not just about aircraft utilization, it is about changing how people think about city-to-airport and cross-town trips. Joby Aviation JOBY, described as a developer of electric air taxis for commercial passenger service, has teamed up with Metropolis in part to make routes like downtown to Newark or JFK airports feel more like a quick hop than a half-day ordeal. By placing vertiports on top of or adjacent to existing parking structures, the companies are betting that travelers will be willing to pay a premium for predictable, congestion-free journeys that slot neatly into their existing routines.
California-based Joby is also pitching the network as a way to optimize service efficiency through software and data, not just hardware. In its own framing of the Toyota-backed expansion, the company highlights how its electric VTOL aircraft and digital tools can coordinate schedules, charging, and passenger demand across Vertiports Across the network to keep aircraft in the air rather than idling on the ground. That operational layer is crucial if the service is to scale beyond a luxury niche and start to resemble a genuine alternative to gridlocked freeways and crowded commuter rails.
Scaling up for 2026 and beyond
Infrastructure only matters if there are enough aircraft and pilots to use it, and Joby is racing the clock on that front. The company has publicly targeted 2026 as its launch year for commercial service, and local reporting on Efforts in Santa Cruz County underscores how much groundwork is underway to hit that date. Those efforts range from legal battles with competitors to the less glamorous work of securing permits, training staff, and coordinating with local governments that will host the first vertiports.
On the corporate side, Joby is using its Toyota-backed funding to prepare for a national footprint rather than a single-city pilot. The company’s own description of its manufacturing plans notes that Joby intends to double its production capacity in the United States, aligning factory output with the 25-site vertiport buildout. If those timelines hold, the combination of expanded manufacturing, repurposed parking infrastructure, and deep-pocketed backing from Toyota Motor Corporation could turn what once sounded like science fiction into a new, if still premium, layer of everyday urban travel.
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