Arrival EV Van Startup Will Build Second US ‘Microfactory’ To Meet UPS Order

Delivery giant UPS placed an order for 10,000 electric delivery vans and Arrival wants to build them locally.

Arrival EV

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Mar 19, 2021 at 9:19am ET

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Hyundai-backed, UK-based electric commercial vehicle startup Arrival’s business model is centered around building what the company calls microfactories to assemble vehicles locally for the markets where they have been ordered. And since American delivery giant UPS has ordered 10,000 fully-electric vans from Arrival, the latter is looking to open a microfactory Stateside, its second one.

This order for 10,000 BEV vans is UPS’ largest ever single order for electric vehicles and it is worth somewhere in the hundreds of millions range. Arrival has already set up its US headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as a microfactory in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Now it wants to open a second manufacturing location, this time located in West Charlotte, close to the local airport.

Gallery: Arrival Van

Arrival Van

Arrival says the new factory will cost it around $41.2-million, it will be able to churn out 10,000 electric vans (several sizes and variants) per year and create over 250 jobs. This new facility is expected to go online in Q3 2022 and according to Michael Ableson, a former General Motors official, now the CEO of Arrival,

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Our newest Microfactory will be producing two different classes of EV vans for our U.S. customers, expanding the zero-emissions options for fleet operators and accelerating the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

The Arrival Van will be available with battery packs ranging in size from 67 to 133 kWh which will correspond to a WLTP range of between 180 km and 340 km (112 miles and 211 miles); it will support fast charging at up to 120 kWh. There will be four different chassis lengths and three height variants. Public trials are set to commence this summer.