Southern California Preparing For Electric Aviation As part of the ramp-up towards certification of individual eVTOLs and electric aircraft in general, the charging infrastructure needs to be in place as well. In many cases, this infrastructure along with the airport's/vertiports/landing areas have not even been started. Remember quite a few of these new aircraft are supposed to be certified in 2025. In the case of Joby Aviation, the first aircraft recharging station for air-taxi type aircraft in Southern California will be placed at the John Wayne Airport.
Joby has joined with Clay Lacy and signed a definitive agreement with them for the infrastructure to be installed. Joby's Southern California air taxi network is expected to be one of the first networks to launch in the United States and the installation at John Wayne Airport is the to be the same Global Electric Aviation Charging System already in use at Joby flight test center in Marina, California and at Edwards Air Force Base.
JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby said: "Today’s announcement marks a key moment on the path to delivering our air taxi service in the Greater Los Angeles area. We’re taking concrete steps to ensure the right infrastructure is in place to support our future service and we’re grateful to be working with an industry pioneer like Clay Lacy Aviation to lead the way on bringing sustainable aviation to Southern California. The charging technology we have developed is optimized to support our whole industry, from air taxis delivering short range city flights to more conventional electric aircraft flying longer distances. Joby made the specifications for the universal charging interface freely available to the wider industry in November 2023, to help accelerate the transition to clean flight. We’re therefore very pleased to see it being adopted in this key market." For more information: Joby Aviation 340 Woodpecker Ridge, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States www.jobyaviation.com ***
