business news

Arrival to unveil EV co-built with Uber at 2022 TC Sessions: Mobility

Arrival to unveil EV co-built with Uber at 2022 TC Sessions: Mobility

Arrival, an electric vehicle firm based in the United Kingdom that went public last year, is reportedly set to unveil its new EV co-developed alongside Uber at the 2022 TC Sessions Mobility. The EV firm has set an ambitious goal of making electric vehicles that are less expensive than other brand EVs and can compete with the prices of fossil-fuel automobiles.

Arrival’s approach involves foregoing the usual large-scale or even ‘giga-sized’ factories in favor of a considerably smaller and decentralized strategy. By 2024, Arrival wants to establish over 31 micro-factories, including one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Arrival claims that these micro-factories enable the corporation to target specific sectors, ride-hailing being one of them, while keeping expenses down.

Last year, Arrival and Uber announced plans to develop and construct a purpose-built, affordable electric car for ride-hailing. Drivers were even encouraged to participate in the car's design phase, which is set to begin in Q3 2023.

Now, a year later, the company is ready to unveil the progress it has made. At TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 held in San Mateo, California, on May 18-19, Avinash Rugoobur, president of Arrival, will have a fireside chat beside a vehicle prototype developed for Uber drivers.

While the upcoming EV will be the focus of the conversation, it is expected that Arrival's involvement in the commercial vehicle segment would also be discussed alongside its microfactory plans, including its future developments or whether it can quickly scale up vehicle production to convert its several non-binding orders and letters of intent (LOI) into sales.

These pending agreements cover 59,000 vehicles, along with a 10,000-vehicle contract with UPS, who also has the option to buy another 10,000. The agreement might be valued at over $1 billion in total.

Rugoobur led General Motor's $1 billion acquisition of Cruise before signing with Arrival, and was also part of the team that saw the company's valuation rise to $14 billion. This effort was crucial in hastening the supply of AVs and establishing the OEM/startup ecosystem.

Source credit: https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/10/arrivals-avinash-rugoobur-to-reveal-ev-built-with-uber-at-tc-sessions-mobility-2022/

About the author

Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for numerous websites, including News Origins, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology.