Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The UK-based electric vehicle maker Arrival announced on Monday that its Van has achieved EU certification and received European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWVTA), a critical step towards starting trials with customers in the coming months. A couple months after achieving the same approval for its buses, Arrival gets the EUWVTA for its Van and expects to start production of the Van in Bicester, UK in Q3 2022.
“Our customers are tremendously excited about the Arrival Van and the unique offering it provides them. With an unrivalled user experience and lower total cost of ownership it will help them accelerate their transition to zero-emission vehicles. This version of the vehicle we started in 2020, so to have passed all certification tests in this short time frame is a truly monumental achievement by the whole team. We now look forward to starting production later this year and delivering vehicles to our customers, in order to help to make cleaner air for cities all over the world,” said Denis Sverdlov, Founder and CEO at Arrival.
Arrival’s zero-emission Van features Arrival’s advanced in-house hardware and software technologies throughout the vehicle to create an elevated experience and provide operators with the data and tools they need to optimise the running of a fleet.
The vehicle is made from Arrival’s unique lightweight composite materials, which are designed to be recyclable, durable and lower in cost. The Arrival Van will be manufactured using Arrival’s pioneering new method of production – using Microfactories placed in cities all around the world. Microfactories are expected to have a lower Capex and cost of assembly, shorter commissioning time and be more environmentally friendly than traditional methods of production.
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Arrival takes a modular and flexible approach to the design and production of its vehicles, which means the hardware and software is upgradable over a vehicle’s lifetime. The company will continually update and test its vehicles, in order to deliver the best possible product and experience for customers.
Arrival has over 140k non-binding LOIs and orders for variants of the Arrival Van. The rapid growth of e-commerce has led to an increase in demand for light commercial transport in cities, increasing both congestion and pollution. At the same time, there is an urgent need from cities, fleet operators and national governments to decarbonise operations in line with global public policy. At COP26, more than thirty countries, dozens of states and cities, agreed to work to guarantee that new cars and vans sold are zero-emission by 2035, and the EU passed this ruling last week.
With commercial vehicles covering higher mileage on a daily basis, they are one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in Europe, accounting for 13% of road transport carbon pollution. The Arrival Van has been made to help accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, creating cleaner air for cities all over the world.
Last Friday, Arrival announced that entered into a partnership with Enel X — the world’s largest supplier of e-bus solutions outside China operating over 3,200 e-Buses globally — to test the zero-emission battery electric bus in Italy.
The tests will be carried out in Italy, at the Vallelunga circuit, by Enel X on the basis of an analysis matrix developed in-house, to look at all the main features of the Arrival Bus. The success of these tests will be a key building block for Enel to include the Arrival Bus within its portfolio of global electrification solutions.
Recently, the company said that physical type approval testing is now complete for the Van, and the company expects to receive official paperwork over the coming weeks for European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWVTA). Start production of the Van in Bicester, UK is expected for the third quarter of 2022 and Charlotte, NC, USA in Q4 2022.
Earlier this year, the company reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Arrival CEO confirmed the total production of 400-600 Vans plus low volume production of Buses in the UK starting in the second half of the year.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter