Arrival builds the first prototype van using its new Microfactory model

EV launch Arrival has taken a big step in the production of its first commercial electric vehicle, especially in how its flagship van is assembled. Arrival has successfully built its first production test van at its micro-factory in Bicester, UK, marking the start of a new streamlined assembly line that could ultimately change how and where electric vehicles are assembled in the future.

Arrival ($ARVL) is an electric mobility startup focused on providing urban mobility that originally started with plans for fully electric passenger busa van and an arrival car geared towards shared journeys developed together with Uber.

Although the company is currently headquartered in London and Charlotte, North Carolina, all R&D and design now takes place in Bicester, where production of the Arrival Van will also begin.

Instead of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in building mega-productions, Arrival took the opposite approach. In what it calls its “micro-factory,” Arrival takes existing industrial facilities and installs its own assembly cells that can be implemented quickly and efficiently.

This strategy eliminates the need for any special foundations, paint pits, or other assembly processes. Instead, individual prefab cells are bolted directly to the concrete floor. Each cage contains 3-4 ready-made robots in addition to all necessary equipment for moving parts around the object, such as autonomous robots.

Since going public through a SPAC merger in March 2021, the startup’s shares have fallen, leading to an announcement last July that it would reorganize your business to focus on the production of the Arrival Van. As a result, Priezd delivered full stop development of Arrival Bus and Car at the present time.

​​​​​​While Arrival has been making progress with production-ready vans, none of them have been built in a micro-factory… until now.

The arrival shows the proof of concept of the Van Microfactory model

The startup shared its latest achievement, putting a last-mile delivery van into production press release today along with an update on the status of Arrival as a whole. The van pictured above is the first to be assembled in Arrival’s original software-defined micro-factory using proprietary technology, composite materials, autonomous mobile robots and other proprietary components.

Successfully rolling off the Microfactory assembly line in the UK, this latest van demonstrates a proof of concept for Arrival’s unique manufacturing approach and brings its creators one step closer to full-scale electric vehicle production and initial deliveries. Dzianis Sverdlov, the founder and general director of Arrival, spoke about the company’s activities:

Today is an important day for Advent. This is the first time a car has been built in our micro-factory using a new method that does not use a traditional assembly line. Although we have not yet reached mass production, we are focused on making it happen. We will continue to produce cars in our micro factory to master mass production. It was more difficult than we originally imagined, and I thank the team for the tremendous amount of effort, technology, innovation breakthroughs and problem solving.

While that remains a huge achievement for the EV startup, Arrival’s upcoming van builds won’t be reaching customers just yet… at least not this year. The company says all vans produced at the UK micro-factory will be used for extensive testing, inspection and quality control.

As for the official start of mass production and delivery times, Arrival says we’ll know more during its third-quarter earnings call on November 8. We may also get an update on the progress of Van production in the US, now that one Microfactory is successfully up and running. We’ll let you know when we know more in November.

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