Joby Aviation Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) has spent years positioning itself at the forefront of electric air taxis. But during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt pointed investors toward a technology he believes could eventually reshape aviation on an even broader scale: hydrogen propulsion.

While hydrogen is not part of Joby’s near-term commercialization strategy, Bevirt said the company has been researching the technology for more than six years because of its potential to transform longer-range aircraft.

Hydrogen’s energy characteristics, he argued, could fundamentally change aircraft economics, making it one of the most significant advances in aviation in nearly a century.

Why Joby Is Looking Beyond Batteries

Responding to an analyst’s question about hydrogen, Bevirt said the company’s interest stems from the technology’s ability to store far more energy than conventional aviation fuels on a weight basis.

“Hydrogen is something we began pulling the thread on back six-plus years ago,” Bevirt said. “Hydrogen has three times the specific energy of jet fuel, and with our fuel cell systems, we can convert that chemical energy into propulsion about twice as efficiently as a small turbine converts jet fuel into propulsion.”

According to Bevirt, that combination could allow aircraft to fly farther while carrying more passengers, addressing one of commercial aviation’s biggest design constraints—the weight of fuel itself.

A Different Future for Aircraft Design

To illustrate the opportunity, Bevirt compared today’s long-haul aircraft. Fuel accounts for a significant portion of an aircraft’s weight and influences everything from operating costs to passenger capacity.

“Take an A320 versus an A350,” Bevirt added citing an example. “The A350 flies twice as far with twice as many passengers. It weighs four times as much…weighs twice as much per passenger…so if you have a lighter-weight fuel, you can do really game-changing things with aircraft design.”

Lighter fuel systems, he said, could dramatically change those trade-offs, enabling entirely new aircraft designs that are more efficient than today’s conventional jets.

That potential led Bevirt to make one of the boldest statements of the earnings call.

“We think this is the biggest disruption in aviation since the invention of the turbine engine back in the 1930s,” he said.

A Long-Term Bet Beyond eVTOL

For now, Joby’s commercial roadmap remains centered on launching its electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. Management reiterated during the call that the company remains on track to carry its first passengers this year while continuing to scale manufacturing and certification efforts.

Still, Bevirt suggested hydrogen represents a longer-term opportunity the company believes is worth pursuing alongside its electric aircraft ambitions.

“We think that by being one of the world leaders, if not the world leader, we’re going to see really significant upside over the years to come,” he said.

For investors, the comments offered a glimpse beyond Joby’s near-term focus on commercializing air taxis. While hydrogen remains an early-stage initiative, management signaled that it views the technology as a potential long-term driver of innovation in aviation, extending well beyond the urban air mobility market.

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