Joby Aviation is still a year away from commercially launching its electric air taxi designed for urban environments, but the startup is already looking toward the next step: hydrogen-powered intercity flights.
To begin discussions with regulators and demonstrate hydrogen's capabilities, Joby told TechCrunch that it has completed a 523-mile test flight with its hydrogen-electric prototype aircraft, one of the company's eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft powered by a liquid hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen-electric propulsion system.
Currently, Joby Aviation's eVTOL is built to transport people and goods short distances within a city or from a city to an airport. The battery-powered aircraft has a range of 100 miles. According to Joby, hydrogen can act as a range extender, opening the door to regional use cases.
“This is a groundbreaking moment for aviation,” Joby CEO Joben Bevert told TechCrunch. “If you want to travel long distances or stay in the air for long periods of time, hydrogen electric is a game changer.”
The use of hydrogen to power vehicles has been hotly debated for years. Hydrogen is technically a zero-emission fuel source because it only emits water when used. But producing hydrogen is costly and energy-intensive, so most hydrogen today is produced using fossil fuels. Green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy sources, has yet to be significantly scaled up.
But recent private and public investment in green hydrogen, including the $8 billion Hydrogen Hub program included in President Biden's Inflation Control Act, is giving new energy to the sector, and Bevert says “aviation has the potential to become a large consumer of green hydrogen.”
“The amazing thing about hydrogen is that it's three times lighter per unit of energy than jet fuel, and 100 times lighter per unit of energy than today's batteries,” Bevert says, “and with hydrogen fuel cells, we can convert the chemical energy of hydrogen into propulsion twice as efficiently.”
Joby has been quietly preparing to introduce hydrogen into its eVTOLs. In 2021, Joby acquired German hydrogen aviation startup H2Fly. Last year, H2Fly demonstrated its own crewed flight with a liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft, and now Joby is using the same technology to power a hydrogen version of its eVTOL. Bevirt told TechCrunch that the fuel cell system designed and built by H2Fly will power the Joby aircraft's six electric motors and can charge the batteries in flight.
Joby is still in the demonstration phase, but Bevirt says that once it's ready to begin testing regional flights, the hydrogen-powered eVTOL will be able to be integrated into current systems with minimal cost.
“We're augmenting 90 percent of the systems and components of this battery-electric aircraft that we've developed with a hydrogen-electric range extender,” Bevirt says, “and now, with a very small additional investment, we can use the same vertical takeoff and landing pad, the same pilots and maintainers, and the Elevate operating system that runs all of the back-end logic.”
ElevateOS, the core of Joby's planned air taxi service, pays homage to the Elevate air taxi business that ride-hailing giant Uber sold to Joby in 2020. The sale included a set of software tools that enable on-demand transportation similar to hailing an Uber ride. Indeed, Joby's app will be integrated into the startup's launch partners, Uber and Delta Airlines.
“Whether you use the Joby app or the Uber app, all of a sudden you can not only get around town, but you can get anywhere in the community,” Bevirt said.
Some investors aren't so convinced.
Cyrus Sigali, co-founder and managing partner at VC Up Partners, said he would like to see hydrogen-powered eVTOLs become a reality, but that investors “would need to present a very compelling technical and business case to move forward with investing in this space.”
He said one of the biggest challenges is infrastructure.
“The industry is already struggling with how to support battery-electric aircraft with airport charging infrastructure,” Sigali told TechCrunch. “Adding hydrogen filling stations to the mix creates even more challenges.”
He noted that the recent closure of Universal Hydrogen, one of the hydrogen industry's major players supplying hydrogen fuel to traditional airlines, highlighted just how difficult all of this is.
When asked about hydrogen filling stations, Bevert was unfazed.
“We don't see that being a big barrier to adoption,” Bevert told TechCrunch. “We're in discussions with a number of airports around the country and around the world that are installing liquid hydrogen refueling infrastructure.”
And while Universal Hydrogen was forced to close after failing to raise enough capital to stay in business, ZeroAvia signed a major contract with American Airlines, committing to buying 100 hydrogen-fueled engines.
Joby hasn't said when it plans to release its hydrogen-powered eVTOL, but the purpose of the demo flight is to set up a forum for discussion with green hydrogen producers and regulators.
“This is a critical moment to begin a dialogue with regulators in the U.S. and around the world and say the technology is here, the technology is ready, and it's time to get this set up to certify,” Bevert said.