Arrival of the EV startup to refocus its activity on electric vans for the American market

In 2018, young electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival partnered with UPS to build a new generation of electric delivery vans, starting with a pilot fleet of 35 vehicles, for use in the United States and Europe. The company quickly expanded its scope from there, working on plans for an electrified bus, an electric ride-sharing vehicle for Uber and an $11.5 million battery factory. However, on Thursday the company abruptly announced that it had decided to end its bus and automobile projects to "refocus its resources on the US market while advancing its enabling technologies".

In a Thursday press release, the company said that "scaling up production at the Bicester [UK] micro-factory requires significant additional investment in tooling and capital turnover and the company determined that the benefits of such an investment would be better directed to the U.S. market." As such, the company will restructure and focus its efforts on the Van and the underlying technology that powers it.

Arrival cites the U.S. electric vehicle tax credit as a major influence on its decision, noting that the Cut Inflation Act "is supposed to offer between $7,500 and $40,000 for commercial vehicles , [a] large addressable market size and significantly better margins." Unfortunately, the company will have to (ugh, their words) 'get the right size' of the UK workforce, as in the redundancies.

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