Arrival, a British EV builder that (will) supply large-scale electric delivery vans for UPS and Royal Mail, among others, shows a new prototype. The concept car, only referred to as ‘Van’, seems to be ready for production.
Arrival may not be a well-known name for many, but you can bet that this will change in the coming years. The home country of the United Kingdom will eventually teem with Arrivals. The local national postal service, the Royal Mail, started working with the company two years ago. It may supply a new generation of electric vans to the Royal Mail, in nine different sizes. At the time, the deal was closed with the unveiling of an ‘Alpha’ prototype decked out like a Royal Mail bus (see photo below). Arrival now has a sharpened successor ready.
Arrival Alpha Prototype
This ‘Beta’ prototype of the Arrival Van is, the company says InsideEVs knowledge, after thorough consultation with Royal Mail and its other major prospective customer, UPS. UPS, which has already ordered 10,000 electric buses from Arrival, would have had some comments on the earlier prototype, among other things. As a result, the fairly high coach-like windscreen has made way for a smaller and more inclined one. Simply put, the nose has become a lot more like that of a conventional van. There is also an image of a very minimalist but modern designed cockpit.
The Van stands on a modular platform, which, according to Arrival, allows many different variants of the Van. The final production version therefore comes in different sizes, both in terms of length and height, but also with various different battery packs. Obviously anticipated as well as possible on the different purposes for which the vans will be used. Arrival uses batteries from the well-known Chinese LG Chem and puts together the battery packs itself. A capacity of 44 kWh to a maximum of 130 kWh is mentioned. The latter must of course also allow postal transport over longer distances across the country.
Arrival is aiming for the first deliveries in early 2022. Before then we will of course see a production version, but you can count on the Beta prototype to be close by. Arrival is aiming for an annual production capacity of 50,000 vehicles at its plant in Banbury, UK.
Hyundai and Kia
The fact that Arrival is a company to be reckoned with is evident from the fact that a large international company such as UPS has placed a hefty order there. Another interesting fact is that Hyundai and Kia are also working with Arrival. That became known at the beginning of this year. The brands jointly invest € 100 million in Arrival for the production of electric delivery vans. It seems that (given the large investment) it is more about customization than the whole story above. On the modular basis called ‘Skateboard’, cars should eventually appear that are probably completely according to the design of the South Korean manufacturers. Not only vans, but probably also ‘cars’ for passenger transport. Think not of cars as we know them from those brands, but of autonomous city vehicles based on the idea of ​​the M.Vision Concept unveiled this year.