Arrival Van achieves EU certification, receives whole vehicle type approval

Arrival recently announced that the Arrival Van has achieved EU certification and received European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWVTA). Arrival successfully completed all the required functional and safety testing to achieve EUWVTA, which is a critical step towards starting trials with customers in the coming months. The company is expected to start production of the Van in Bicester, UK in Q3 2022.

This version of the vehicle we started in 2020, so to have passed all certification tests in this short time frame is a truly monumental achievement by the whole team. We now look forward to starting production later this year and delivering vehicles to our customers, in order to help to make cleaner air for cities all over the world.

—Denis Sverdlov, Founder and CEO at Arrival

Arrival’s zero-emission Van is purposefully designed to be an environmentally sustainable and economically efficient commercial electric vehicle, compared to traditional Vans. It features Arrival’s in-house hardware and software technologies throughout the vehicle to create an elevated experience and provide operators with the data and tools they need to optimize the running of a fleet.

The vehicle is made from Arrival’s unique lightweight composite materials, which are designed to be recyclable, durable and lower in cost. The Arrival Van will be manufactured using Microfactories placed in cities around the world. Microfactories are expected to have a lower Capex and cost of assembly, shorter commissioning time and be more environmentally friendly than traditional methods of production.

Arrival takes a modular and flexible approach to the design and production of its vehicles, which means the hardware and software is upgradable over a vehicle’s lifetime. The company will continually update and test its vehicles.

Arrival has more than 140,000 non-binding LOIs and orders for variants of the Arrival Van. The rapid growth of e-commerce has led to an increase in demand for light commercial transport in cities, increasing both congestion and pollution. At the same time, there is an urgent need from cities, fleet operators and national governments to decarbonize operations in line with global public policy.