Arrival claims to have developed a production method that will allow it to bring the price of its electric van in-line with rival zero-emission LCVs from Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.
The company has done this by adding 20 6m x 6m ‘micro-factories’ at its 10,000sq ft manufacturing plant in Banbury. Each micro-factory houses one vehicle during the build process.
Arrival’s head of corporate communications Imogen Pierce, explained the reasoning behind the micro-factories: “It encourages simplicity of design and reduced complexity throughout the design process if you have to consider a simple manufacturing method from the outset. It means our factories can have a small footprint too, so they can be located close to areas of demand.”
Established in 2015, Arrival is currently developing its first LCV, the Generation 2 Electric Vehicle. Its 790-strong workforce will eventually build 10,000 of the new electric LCVs per year.
“By producing this amount of vehicles, we hope to provide the buyer with a price tag of around €40,000 (£34,500), which is equivalent to the electric Sprinter and Crafter,” Pierce explained.
Blackberry will be supplying the marque with its QNX SDP 7.0 operating system, which will power the advanced driver assistance systems within the vehicle. Aesthetically, it will look similar to Volta’s e-LCV, and will have a 4x2 axle configuration.
Not much has been revealed about the new vehicle ahead of it entering production, but Arrival has confirmed it will have a payload of approximately 2 tonnes and a range of around 300km.
