Toyota invested nearly $400 million in the flying car company Joby Aviation.

According to Bloomberg News, the flying taxi company Joby? The aviation industry recently completed an investment of $590 million, of which the leading Toyota Company contributed $394 million. After the completion of this round of financing, Joby? The total amount of airline financing reached 720 million US dollars, making it the most well-funded company in this field.

Interpretation: This is the second time Toyota has given it to Joby? Aviation investment. 2065438+In February 2008, Japanese auto giants joined forces with Intel and JetBlue to invest 1 billion dollars in this mysterious flying car company.

In Joby's $590 million Series C financing, Toyota is the main investor, in addition to Baillie? Gifford and Universal? Oryx, and intel capital (Intel? Capital), Capricorn Investment Group, JetBlue Technology (JetBlue? Technology? Ventures), Sparx group and its own investment department Toyota AI? Take risks.

Akio Toyoda said: "While focusing on the automobile business, air traffic has become Toyota's long-term goal. This investment has broadened our horizons to a vast sky. Joby? Aviation is an innovator in the field of emerging vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Working with him, we are exposed to the greater possibility of changing future traffic and life. Through these exciting new efforts, we hope to convey the freedom and happiness of mobile to our customers, whether in the sky or on the ground. "

Joby? Founder and CEO of aviation? Qiao Ben? Bevirt said: "The cooperation with Toyota means an unprecedented commitment in terms of capital and resources for us and the VTOL automobile industry. This commitment comes from the world's leading automobile manufacturers. I am very happy to enjoy Toyota's expertise in lean manufacturing and engineering, which can push us to realize our dream of helping billions of people save more than one hour of commuting time every day. "

Tomoyoshi Toyama, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corporation, will join Joby? The board of directors of the aviation industry and play a role in strategic formulation.

Joby? Aviation was founded by JoeBen in 2009? Bevirt was founded in Santa Cruz, California, USA, and its main goal is to solve the problem of urban low-altitude traffic.

They hope to build an electric plane with vertical take-off and landing capability, which can transport four people at a time and fly 240km after each charge. Initially, users will be provided with "flying taxi" service.

On a global scale, Uber is a good ecology to promote the "flying taxi" business. Raise the height. Almost all flying car manufacturers, municipal governments, building property operators, charging service providers and air traffic control agencies have been integrated to promote the popularization of flying cars.

The biggest bottleneck in the popularization of electric flying cars is actually the energy density of batteries, and it is a disaster for a large number of power batteries with low energy density to fly in the sky. Uber predicts that flying cars will become a viable business when the energy density of the power battery unit reaches 400Wh/kg.

Joby? Aviation has many strong competitors, including Kitty invested by Larry Page. Hawk and Lilium led by Tencent, a subsidiary of Airbus? Aurora, a subsidiary of Boeing? Volocopter jointly invested by Flight, Daimler-Benz and Geely.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.