Joby Aviation expands Manufacturing Capacity in California and Ramps up Renovated Facility in Ohio

Joby Avi­a­tion has announced the expan­sion of its Mari­na site in Cal­i­for­nia, which will dou­ble its air­craft pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty.

In a press release issued yes­ter­day (Tues­day), the total site now spans approx­i­mate­ly 435,500 square feet and will sup­port the scale-up of com­mer­cial oper­a­tions. Joby also expand­ed its flight test pro­gram with the addi­tion of a new air­craft to its grow­ing fleet.

Addi­tion­al­ly, Joby is also ramp­ing up its new­ly ren­o­vat­ed facil­i­ty in Day­ton, Ohio to man­u­fac­ture and test air­craft com­po­nents.

Eric Alli­son, Chief Prod­uct Offi­cer at Joby Avi­a­tion, said: “Reimag­in­ing urban mobil­i­ty takes speed, scale, and pre­ci­sion man­u­fac­tur­ing. Our expand­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing foot­print in both Cal­i­for­nia and Ohio is prepar­ing us to do just that.

“We cel­e­brat­ed the open­ing of the new facil­i­ty with the flight of our sixth air­craft, which earned air­wor­thi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with­in a week of com­ple­tion.”

The open­ing of the new man­u­fac­tur­ing space is a big step for­ward as Joby gets ready to scale pro­duc­tion and enter the mar­ket. Achiev­ing this comes down to three key strengths:

• Com­mit­ted to Amer­i­can Inno­va­tion: Draw­ing on top tal­ent at its Cal­i­for­nia and Ohio facil­i­ties, Joby designs, builds, and tests its air­craft in the US. Using tools like advanced data ana­lyt­ics and 3D print­ing, Joby pro­duces com­po­nents that are lighter, stronger and more flex­i­ble. With its new­ly expand­ed Mari­na facil­i­ty, the Com­pa­ny plans to add hun­dreds of full-time jobs to sup­port increased air­craft pro­duc­tion.
• Advan­tage of Ver­ti­cal Inte­gra­tion: Joby han­dles near­ly every aspect of its air­craft and air taxi ser­vice in-house, from design and man­u­fac­tur­ing to pilot train­ing and oper­a­tions. This ver­ti­cal inte­gra­tion helps speed devel­op­ment, ensure qual­i­ty, and accel­er­ate test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. It also lets Joby quick­ly and effi­cient­ly adapt its plat­form for oth­er uses, includ­ing its hybrid hydro­gen-elec­tric propul­sion test­ing.
• Close Col­lab­o­ra­tion with Toy­ota: Toy­ota engi­neers are deeply inte­grat­ed with the Joby team, pro­vid­ing coun­sel to sup­port Joby’s work across design, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and qual­i­ty. Toy­ota also helps the Joby team opti­mize process­es, stream­line assem­bly, and offer advice relat­ed to the devel­op­ment of cus­tom tool­ing to accel­er­ate pro­duc­tion.

Once ful­ly oper­a­tional, the expand­ed Mari­na site is expect­ed to be able to pro­duce up to 24 air­craft per year, which is near­ly one every oth­er week.

It will also pro­vide key capa­bil­i­ties includ­ing its ini­tial FAA pro­duc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, con­form­ing ground and flight test­ing com­po­nents, pilot train­ing sim­u­la­tors, and air­craft main­te­nance.

This site strength­ens Joby’s broad­er man­u­fac­tur­ing net­work, which includes three addi­tion­al facil­i­ties: San­ta Cruz, Cal­i­for­nia, the head­quar­ters dri­ving inno­va­tion and sys­tem archi­tec­ture; San Car­los, Cal­i­for­nia, focused on pow­er­train and elec­tron­ics; and Day­ton, Ohio, a new­ly ren­o­vat­ed facil­i­ty that will man­u­fac­ture and test air­craft com­po­nents for Joby’s Pilot Pro­duc­tion Line.

The Day­ton site demon­strates the capa­bil­i­ties required for FAA pro­duc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and sup­ports the Company’s plans to scale oper­a­tions. Equip­ment instal­la­tion is under­way, with pro­duc­tion ramp­ing up to even­tu­al­ly build up to 500 air­craft a year at that loca­tion.

Strong sup­port from local work­force and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, elect­ed offi­cials, city and coun­ty lead­ers, and non­prof­it part­ners was instru­men­tal in bring­ing the expand­ed facil­i­ty to life.

In 2023, Joby was award­ed a $9.8 mil­lion dol­lar grant from the Cal­i­for­nia Governor’s Office of Busi­ness and Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment (GO-Biz) to accel­er­ate its growth. The Com­pa­ny also ben­e­fit­ed from a pro­gram through the Cal­i­for­nia State Treasurer’s Office, which helped reduce equip­ment costs by $10 mil­lion.

Fea­tured image cour­tesy of Joby Avi­a­tion.