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Joby Aviation flies eVTOL in New York City for the first time, ahead of air taxi operations [Video]
Joby Aviation – one of the leading eVTOL developers right now, has taken to the skies of New York City for the first time ever, teasing a not-so-distance future in which it intends to begin commercial air taxi operations in the urban area and beyond. Getting to the airport may just get a lot easier… and quieter.
If you have any interest in the quickly growing world of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Joby Aviation ($JOBY) should be on your list as a company to keep tabs on.
We at Electrek have been covering the aviation company’s milestones almost monthly the past year, as it continues to elevate toward scaled aircraft production and potentially the holy grail all its competitors also seek – certified commercial air taxi operations.
Joby began building its production-intent eVTOL prototypes in California this past summer after garnering certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin test flights. That milestone, including a pilot onboard, was achieved in early October, alongside testing with the US Air Force as part of a $131 million contract.
Zero-emissions aircraft competitor BETA Technologies also has a contract with the US Air Force and recently flew its ALIA eCTOL from its home in Vermont down to a base in Florida, navigating through Class B airspace above Boston and New York City for the first time ever.
Joby Aviation has done the Big Apple one better, flying its eVTOL around Manhattan to demonstrate a potential route that could save New Yorkers hours on their trips to and from the airport. Check out the video below.
New York sees eVTOL flight ahead of air taxi operations
On Sunday November 12, Joby Aviation’s eVTOL took off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport and performed an exhibition flight amongst the city’s iconic skyline. Following yesterday’s flight, New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, announced the city’s intention to electrify the heliport in anticipation of full-blown commercial air taxi operations led by Joby in 2025. Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bivert spoke:
By electrifying one of the most famous heliports in the world, New York is demonstrating global leadership in the adoption of electric air travel. We’re grateful for the support of the city, and we’re honored to be working with visionary partners like Delta Air Lines to bring our air taxi service to this market. We plan to make quiet, emissions-free flight an affordable, everyday reality for New Yorkers, while significantly reducing the impact of helicopter noise.
Together with previously announced partner Delta Airlines, Joby Aviation intends to bring quieter, cleaner, air taxi travel to New York City, beginning with roundtrip travel between Manhattan and JFK Airport. As you’ll see in Joby’s video below, its four-passenger eVTOL could eventually save customers loads of time as it can travel from the heliport to JFK in an estimated seven minutes, compared to over an hour by car. Delta’s SVP of sustainability performance and strategic partnerships, Gail Grimmett also spoke:
Delivering exceptional experiences for our customers is why Delta has invested over $7B in New York City, especially at our LaGuardia and JFK hubs. Today’s announcement demonstrates the great progress that’s been made toward launching clean, quiet and convenient air taxi services for Delta customers traveling to and from New York, and is a testament to our innovative partners at Joby and the support of Mayor Eric Adams in advancing new and sustainable technologies.
Joby and Delta state they are already working closely with the Port Authority of New York and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to prepare initial eVTOL air taxi operations, including the development of infrastructure at both JFK and LaGuardia Airports.
Joby Aviation will join the Mayoral press conference alongside the NYC EDC this morning to announce the air taxi program and once again demonstrate a zero-emissions eVTOL flight. You can watch that livestream here.
Below is a recent video from Joby as well, outlining what a potential New York City air taxi trip from Manhattan to JFK may look like in 2025.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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