UK electric van maker Arrival secures £340m order from UPS

#News(General) [ via IoTGroup ]

Electric van maker Arrival has secured a €400m (£339m) order for 10,000 vehicles from United Parcel Service (UPS), the US delivery company, in the latest sign of the rapid growth of the UK-based manufacturer.
The purpose-built electric vans will be rolled out in the UK, Europe and North America starting this year and continuing until 2024, with UPS retaining the option to purchase another 10,000.
In practice the total value of vehicles bought by UPS could increase to as much as €600m, a source said, depending on how many larger or longer-range vans it required.
At the same time, traditional carmakers have been hit by the decline of diesel and the steep costs of investing in electric vehicles with zero carbon dioxide exhaust emissions.
However, Arrival, which was founded by Russian entrepreneur Denis Sverdlov in 2015, says that it can develop its electric vehicle platform for £100m, a fraction of the cost of incumbents.
Arrival also rejects the standard production line in favour of using robots to make its van on a single spot, and uses a modular design which it says allows for easy customisation of vehicles.
The UPS deal implies that the base price of an Arrival van will be about £34,000, compared to a £27,900 sticker price for a new Ford Transit with an internal combustion engine – although with lower maintenance and fuel costs the total cost of ownership for electric vans could be lower.
That price would also put it in line with or below the expected cost of a Mercedes eSprinter or Volkswagen’s e-Crafter electric vans, both of which are due this year.
The order represents a significant expansion of UPS’s electric capabilities, as the threat of internal combustion engine limits from cities such as Bristol puts the focus on zero-emission vehicles for “last mile” deliveries.
UPS wants to help solve the “chicken and egg” problem of a meagre supply of electric vans on the market, according to Luke Wake, UPS’s international director of automotive engineering.

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