"Arrival" new UK based bus manufacturer

Haribolover06 · 14 May 2022

PG said:
No doubt that is a deliberate play on words since for the majority of people the actual journey is what is known as a distress purchase which they endure in order to have a safe Arrival at their destination.

Anyone any ideas which op co is providing the drivers or which location(s) they're using?

Cant confirm but usually, tests are done at Millbrook proving ground near Milton Keynes / Bedford Area

RailUK Forums

PG · 16 May 2022

Haribolover06 said:
Cant confirm but usually, tests are done at Millbrook proving ground near Milton Keynes / Bedford Area

Thanks.

Do TRL still have test facilities at Crowthorne or is that now a housing estate?...

andy1571 · 16 May 2022

At least some of the testing was done at MIRA, near Hinckley

Snow1964 · 16 May 2022

The recent earnings press release gave more details of timings

Private road trials with First Bus drivers in progress; public road trials planned to start in Q3 2022

Press release included a table of proposed dates, (van and bus)

Expected Timing Bus milestones
1. Final prototype Van build Achieved
1. Trial Bus production Achieved
2. Van Certification Q2 2022
2. Bus Proving ground trials Achieved
3. Bicester equipment installation Q2 2022
3. Bus Certification Achieved
4. Public road trials Q2 2022
4. Phased trials with First Bus Commenced
5. Bicester/Charlotte Van SOP Q3/Q4 2022
5. UK production of saleable Buses H2 2022

Charlotte is North Carolina, so presumably for North American market. (At Meadow Oak Drive, just south of Charlotte-Douglas airport) Bicester site is at Longlands Road, Launton OX26 5AH. It appears Bicester and Charlotte are the final assembly locations, but there is no indication where the micro-factories are that produce the sub-assemblies

Production Process

All robotic technology required for vehicle assembly has been installed in Bicester

Using the technology cells in Bicester, Arrival has robotically assembled the entire van structure onto the skateboard including the cabin and cargo area

In Charlotte will begin equipment installation in late summer, on track for Q4 2022 SOP

Arrival Reports First Quarter 2022 Financial Results | Arrival Group

Achieved key milestone of Bus Certification Van Certification expected in Q2; over 70% of tests already passed Van SOP expected in Q3 with 400-600 Vans to be produced this year LUXEMBOURG, May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arrival (NASDAQ: ARVL), pioneer of a unique new method of design and

arrival.gcs-web.com

BanburyBlue · 16 May 2022

I live in Banbury, and happened to meet someone who works there. Apparently the trial bus is in Leeds?

Mikey C · 14 Jul 2022

Behind a paywall, but much hyped start-up Arrival are cutting 800 jobs.

Jobs to go at electric vehicle start-up Arrival

Arrival, one of the trailblazers of the electric vehicle revolution in the UK, has admitted a cost crunch will lead to it laying off 800 employees, many of them in Britain.Known for designing and building zero-emission vans for UPS, buses for FirstGroup and taxis for Uber, Arrival was founded by D

www.thetimes.co.uk

Arrival’s latest news follows forecast losses for the year of up $225 million and planned capital spending of up to $420 million. The company’s share price now values the business at less than $1 billion. Last night the shares closed down 1.4 per cent at $1.44.
In a statement, Arrival said it would go through “a reorganisation of its business in response to the challenging economic environment” to husband its $500 million of cash balances. That will lead to a “30 per cent reduction in spend across the organisation [which] could potentially impact up to 30 per cent of employees globally”.

dmncf · 14 Jul 2022

A demonstration of the hype is The Times writing "Arrival, one of the trailblazers of the electric vehicle revolution in the UK". Right now, electric vans from a dozen manufacturers are driving past my house, and there's a cheap Chinese-built SAIC Maxus parked. Arrival are a late entrant to the market and they won't get much market share if they try to copy Tesla's hype and Tesla's prices.

E27007 · 26 Jul 2022

Nym said:
Fascinating it is, but I won't be applying for work with them.

Their business strategy seems to be based on optimism rather than sound financial ideas. So once the early adopters have picked them clean on the loss leaders, I suspect there won't be any meat left to make money on?

Kia/Hyundai group have invested £86 million in Arrival, and that may only be their first tranche of investment, Kia/Hyundai are astute players, their position in the car maket is expanding, especially in the USA,.

Mikey C said:
Behind a paywall, but much hyped start-up Arrival are cutting 800 jobs.

Jobs to go at electric vehicle start-up Arrival

Arrival, one of the trailblazers of the electric vehicle revolution in the UK, has admitted a cost crunch will lead to it laying off 800 employees, many of them in Britain.Known for designing and building zero-emission vans for UPS, buses for FirstGroup and taxis for Uber, Arrival was founded by D

www.thetimes.co.uk

Watching the film, the production line and transfer facilities are highly automated and almost people-less, it is possible a number of layoffs were those employed to create that automated line, and once up and running, their services no longer required. I visited a newspaper printing plant which had a similar profile, hardly any workers employed in production, a few in-house service engineers, robot guided trolleys carrying giant reels of paper, the reels would self-load into the presses, the print hall was devoid of people other than cleaners and floor polishers, the printing presses would fire up and churn out the newspapers and supplements on demand, it is quite worrying to see how few well-paid jobs exist in modern manufacturing processes, mainly work for minimum wage cleaners and polishers

LOL The Irony · 14 Aug 2022

RouteOne are reporting that First have removed Arrival from their ZEBRA scheme.

Arrival out of First's ZEBRA plans as bus is 'deferred' - routeone

The Arrival battery-electric bus will play no part in First's plans for funded ZEBRA bids after further work on it was 'deferred' by the OEM.

www.route-one.net

First Bus is no longer pursuing an order for Arrival battery-electric buses as part of its involvement with bids to the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme in England that have been allocated funding. The development came as Arrival confirmed that further investment in the bus platform has been “deferred” in favour of work on its battery-electric van as the manufacturer seeks further funding.

Founder and CEO Dennis Sverdlov told a publicy-viewable webinar covering the Q2 results that Arrival has “made the strategic decision to focus on operating the business in a downscaled manner through at least 2023.” That will include a reduction in headcount. Mr Sverdlov adds that supply chain pressures are also in play.

Arrival expects to deliver just 20 vehicles – all battery-electric vans – to customers in 2022 via a “slow and deliberate” ramp-up of production at its Bicester factory. Focus of resources initially on the van platform takes account of how the majority of Arrival’s order and memorandum of understanding volumes are for that vehicle.

PG · 15 Aug 2022

Looking like the thread title might need adjusting given that it now seems that a bus on the road never mind in service will be at least 2 years away.

LOL The Irony said:
RouteOne are reporting that First have removed Arrival from their ZEBRA scheme.

Arrival out of First's ZEBRA plans as bus is 'deferred' - routeone

The Arrival battery-electric bus will play no part in First's plans for funded ZEBRA bids after further work on it was 'deferred' by the OEM.

www.route-one.net

With thanks to @LOL The Irony who posted this news in the Bus Manufacturer News thread.

GusB · 29 Jan 2024

This probably won't be a surprise to anyone, but it has been reported that Arrival is on the brink of going bust.

It's a pity, really. I thought they had some good ideas, but I wonder how the company would have fared in what is now quite a crowded marketplace.

Arrival is on the verge of insolvency, media report - Sustainable Bus

Arrival may be close to bankruptcy. Indeed, this would not be a surprise, as the newcomer has been struggling for quite a long time

www.sustainable-bus.com

Arrival may be close to bankruptcy. Indeed, this would not be a surprise, as the newcomer has been struggling for quite a long time. The last news we have been reportedly dated back to February 2023 and concerned the UK company announcing 50% reduction of workforce in an effort to cut operating costs. At the same time, Igor Torgov replaced interim CEO, Peter Cuneo, in turn appointed in November, 2022, when the company’s founder Denis Sverdlov stepped back.

Arrival, founded in 2015, had previously announced its plan to refocus its resources on the development of its US Van product, therefore putting the Arrival bus project on hold in order to cut costs. In mid-2022 they had already announced a business reorganization.

In early 2020 the company announced it had received 100 million euros investments from Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Motors. Arrival had for long been known for the huge order for 10,000 light electric trucks from delivery company UPS, announced in late January 2020.

Arrival on the brink of bankruptcy
Now, Sky News in Britain reported the Nasdaq-listed company “is in talks with EY, a professional services firm, about acting as administrator if the company cannot secure rescue funding“. Although there’s a possibility that Arrival finds the money to survive, it is still unclear how long Arrival’s remaining cash reserves would last.

As reported on Sky News, “Earlier this month, the company said it had received a further notice from Nasdaq warning that it was not in compliance with the listing rules. Shares in Arrival have plummeted by more than 95% over the last year, leaving it with a market capitalisation of just over $20m”.

Reuters wrote that “Arrival did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment, while EY declined comment on the report”. And notes: “EV firms that went public in the SPAC boom during the pandemic capitalized on strong demand from investors looking for the next Tesla. However, high interest rates, inflation, supply chain issues and production struggles have sapped their cash balances with few or no vehicles on roads”.

Volvodart · 29 Jan 2024

They had a thing with the bus, and it was quite far advanced, but it got sidelined for the van.

MotCO · 29 Jan 2024

Did they ever produce any of the UPS vans?

Busaholic · 29 Jan 2024

MotCO said:
Did they ever produce any of the UPS vans?

Yes, that's the vital question. Certainly not been seen in my area.

GusB · 29 Jan 2024

MotCO said:
Did they ever produce any of the UPS vans?

Busaholic said:
Yes, that's the vital question. Certainly not been seen in my area.

They've only built a handful of prototypes, apparently. The source below was published nearly a year ago.

New Arrival electric van: UK company goes into administration

High-tech Arrival electric van promised up to 211-mile range and 1,975kg payload but company goes into administration

www.parkers.co.uk

Only in April 2022, Arrival was aiming for as many as 600 vans to be delivered to customers, but this was then slashed to 20 in September. Now the Bicester site will produce only a handful of vehicles, which will be destined for trials and will be used to test the factory’s processes.

Busaholic · 29 Jan 2024

GusB said:
They've only built a handful of prototypes, apparently. The source below was published nearly a year ago.

New Arrival electric van: UK company goes into administration

High-tech Arrival electric van promised up to 211-mile range and 1,975kg payload but company goes into administration

www.parkers.co.uk

Considerable over-promising then: a shame, nevertheless.I remember Harrods' electric vans from my childhood in London, quite some way from Knightsbridge!

37114 · 29 Jan 2024

MotCO said:
Did they ever produce any of the UPS vans?

Busaholic said:
Yes, that's the vital question. Certainly not been seen in my area.

I went round their R&D facility. They had circa 8 completed prototypes and others in mid build but none were for the UPS order and my understanding is/was they hadn't started making production vehicles. Shame as the product was well thought out being designed as an EV from the start.

tivoli · 5 Feb 2024

UK electric vehicle maker Arrival enters administration with 170 jobs at risk

New York-listed company, once valued at $15bn, failed to launch its debut electric van

www.theguardian.com

The British electric vehicle maker Arrival has collapsed into administration – putting 170 jobs at risk – just three years after it was valued at more than $15bn.

The company, which had two manufacturing sites in Oxfordshire, has appointed consultancy firm EY as administrator, after failing to launch its debut electric van.

The move comes a week after trading in the company was suspended on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange and a notification that the firm would be removed from the exchange was filed. Nasdaq said Arrival had not complied with its listing standards after failing to file accounts for 2022.

An electric car being charged
Millionth pure battery electric car sold in UK after 20 years
Read more
The EY administrators said that Arrival’s liquidity position had been “impacted by challenging market and macroeconomic conditions resulting in delays in getting the group’s products to market”.

They added: “The joint administrators are now exploring options for the sale of the business and assets of the companies, including its electric vehicle platforms, software, intellectual property and R&D assets, for the benefit of creditors.”

"Arrival" new UK based bus manufacturer

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