The Joby Air Taxi Targets Long Range With Hydrogen

Joby Aviation's powertrain chief Jon Wagner explains the engineering behind the company's direct-drive electric motor for its eVTOL air taxi. The motor uses a large-diameter, high-torque design to spin propellers slowly for noise reduction, with dual redundant stator coils and inverters for safety. Wagner emphasizes that Joby's innovation lies in integration rather than invention, and that vertical manufacturing enables highly optimized, low-mass designs. He also discusses why superconducting motors are not yet practical at Joby's scale but could matter for megawatt-class aircraft. Looking ahead, Wagner confirms Joby is actively developing hydrogen fuel cell propulsion for long-range transport, citing hydrogen's roughly 3x better energy density per mass compared to fossil fuels, while acknowledging battery limitations for anything beyond short urban routes.