Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) jumped 6% in early trading Monday morning after the venture-backed electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aviation company announced that it intends to build a fullscale manufacturing plant for its air taxis in Dayton, Ohio.
According to Canaccord Genuity analysts, the company’s selection of Dayton was strategic in nature, given the company’s $143M AFWERX Prime contract and imminent deliveries of initial aircraft to the DoD.
Joby indicated that it plans to spend $500M on the new facility and hire up to 2,000 employees for the assembly site. The company is also expecting to receive $325M in incentives from the state of Ohio to support production.
Joby has applied for approval of a Title XVII clean energy project development loan with low interest rates from the Department of Energy. Canaccord anticipates the application will likely be approved.
The plant will be located on a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport and has the potential to scale to 2M square feet of manufacturing space. Joby expects to begin construction of the new facility in 2024, with operations expected to commence in 2025. Toyota (NYSE:TM), the company's primary manufacturing partner, will provide guidance on the construction of this new site, just as it has done for the smaller factory in Marina, CA.
Canaccord reiterated their Buy rating on JOBY with an $11.00 12-month price target on the aviation stock.
Shares of JOBY are up 6.12% in morning trading on Monday.