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Nov 07, 2023 — Today, we’re announcing that we will make the specifications for the universal charging interface we have developed for electric aircraft freely available to our industry.
Joby’s number one goal is to make sustainable air travel as widely available as possible and, by sharing the progress we’ve made over more than ten years of research and development, we hope to make the transition to clean flight as rapid as possible.
Joby’s charging technology is already in use at our flight test center in Marina, California, and at Edwards Air Force Base, where Joby recently delivered the US Air Force’s first air taxi and installed the first on-base electric aviation charging system.
Importantly, the technology we have developed is optimized to support all types of electric aircraft under development today, from air taxis delivering short range city flights to more conventional electric aircraft flying longer distances — something that is not true of the alternative concept currently being proposed. This means that infrastructure developers and network operators will only need to install one type of charger to support the entire industry, significantly reducing the barriers to getting this industry off the ground.
Led by Jon Wagner, formerly a Senior Director of Battery Engineering at Tesla, our team has developed technology that builds on existing automotive charging technology standards but adapts them to the unique requirements of aviation and the urban air mobility market, unlike the repurposed automotive standard currently being discussed.
The Joby charging system brings the benefit of integrated battery conditioning, secure and high-speed data offload that is expected to meet the safety and cybersecurity requirements outlined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the ability to simultaneously charge the multiple independent battery packs typically found in electric aircraft. Our solution is also expected to have a lower certification burden.
We believe it’s critically important to avoid the fractured implementation of charging infrastructure seen in the auto industry - where a push towards the lowest common denominator has failed the market test - and we look forward to working with our industry colleagues and relevant standards bodies to deliver an approach to charging that is in the interest of every operator.
More technical details on our charging system can be found here.
For more information, please contact us at groundsupportequipment@jobyaviation.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This blog post contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding including but not limited to, statements regarding the development and performance of our aircraft, the expected performance and benefits of our charging technology and the ability of such technology to meet certification requirements. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, “intend”, “believe”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “can have”, “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. All forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including our ability to launch our aerial ridesharing service and the growth of the urban air mobility market generally and certification standards may change and our charging technology may not be certified in the timeframe we expect or at all and other important factors discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 1, 2023, and in future filings and other reports we file with or furnish to the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates and beliefs as of the date of this blog post. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.