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Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail 

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Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail | Top Gear

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Things started well, then things went very unwell, very quickly, and things then ended very badly...

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Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Things started well, then things went very unwell, very quickly, and things then ended very badly...

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Things started well, then things went very unwell, very quickly, and things then ended very badly...

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Why Arrival, the British electric vanmaker, was such an epic fail

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Things started well, then things went very unwell, very quickly, and things then ended very badly...

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What’s the opposite of nominative determinism? Whatever it’s called, meet the dictionary definition: Arrival, the British electric vanmaker that never quite... arrived.

Founded in 2015 by former Russian politician Denis Sverdlov, Arrival appeared destined for the big time. Instead of a single megafactory, Arrival planned to establish a bunch of small assembly facilities around the world, building intelligent, battery powered vehicles spun off their scaleable ‘skateboard’ platform. These vehicles would include vans in a range of sizes, a bus and even, if things went well, a car.

To start, things went well. Despite Arrival’s prototype creations boasting absolutely no styling, investment for the Bicester-based startup poured in, including more than $100 million from Hyundai and Kia.

In 2020, the American parcel delivery firm UPS signed a contract for 10,000 Arrival vans, a contract worth $1.2bn. In total, Arrival claimed it had orders in place for some 64,000 vehicles. By 2022, the company was valued at $15bn – roughly the same as Renault’s current worth, despite Arrival having never built an actual production vehicle.

Arrival never would. Thereafter, things went very unwell, very quickly. Sverdlov admitted the journey from concept to production had been “much more difficult than we thought, for sure”. One of Arrival’s demonstrator vehicles caught fire in front of its largest client, which is a terrible portent and terrible publicity. It was reported the company struggled with the differing demands of European and US crash regulations, and also that the boss had become “distracted by a side project to make an electric jet”.

Whatever the reasons, Arrival tanked hard. In 2023, it cut half its workforce... a year later it was placed in administration. Its assets were then acquired by another EV startup, Canoo, which itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Arrival? More like dead on arrival.

# data.attributes.body.processed
What’s the opposite of nominative determinism? Whatever it’s called, meet the dictionary definition: Arrival, the British electric vanmaker that never quite... arrived.

Founded in 2015 by former Russian politician Denis Sverdlov, Arrival appeared destined for the big time. Instead of a single megafactory, Arrival planned to establish a bunch of small assembly facilities around the world, building intelligent, battery powered vehicles spun off their scaleable ‘skateboard’ platform. These vehicles would include vans in a range of sizes, a bus and even, if things went well, a car.

To start, things went well. Despite Arrival’s prototype creations boasting absolutely no styling, investment for the Bicester-based startup poured in, including more than $100 million from Hyundai and Kia.

In 2020, the American parcel delivery firm UPS signed a contract for 10,000 Arrival vans, a contract worth $1.2bn. In total, Arrival claimed it had orders in place for some 64,000 vehicles. By 2022, the company was valued at $15bn – roughly the same as Renault’s current worth, despite Arrival having never built an actual production vehicle.

Arrival never would. Thereafter, things went very unwell, very quickly. Sverdlov admitted the journey from concept to production had been “much more difficult than we thought, for sure”. One of Arrival’s demonstrator vehicles caught fire in front of its largest client, which is a terrible portent and terrible publicity. It was reported the company struggled with the differing demands of European and US crash regulations, and also that the boss had become “distracted by a side project to make an electric jet”.

Whatever the reasons, Arrival tanked hard. In 2023, it cut half its workforce... a year later it was placed in administration. Its assets were then acquired by another EV startup, Canoo, which itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Arrival? More like dead on arrival.

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Things started well, then things went very unwell, very quickly, and things then ended very badly...