There’s a new unicorn in the world of electric vehicles.
The UK-based startup Arrival, which is building small- and medium-sized electric vans for deliveries and other commercial roles, announced this week that it’s attracted a $110 million investment from Hyundai and Kia.
Arrival’s Chief Strategy Officer Avinash Rugoobur says the partnership bumps Arrival’s valuation to $3 billion euros($3.3 billion USD). By contrast, Rivian, which is building an electric pickup truck, was last valued at $5-7 billion, and Tesla’s value is just shy of $100 billion, more than Ford and GM combined.
“One of the keys to our approach is we're a purpose-built vehicle specifically for commercial vehicle applications. That gives us some freedom to truly optimize the vehicle for those applications,” Arrival president Albert Biermann said in an exclusive interview Thursday morning with Cheddar. “That will give us an advantage over any company that we see right now in the commercial vehicle space.”
Hyundai, Kia and Arrival said that they each plan to introduce a range of “purpose-built vehicles” based on Arrival’s “scalable electric platform.” Already, since 2018, UPS has been testing several dozen toaster-shaped Arrival delivery vans on the streets of London and Paris.
The vans are based on what Arrival calls its “skateboard” platform, a modular design that the company says will allow it to rapidly build a range of vehicles off the same platform, at a lower price.
“We can offer electric vehicles at the same price as petro-fuel vehicles,” Biermann told Cheddar.
Delivery vans and other commercial vehicles may be easier to electrify than passenger cars and trucks. For delivery or messenger services, and some contractors, the routes tend to be short, at least in cities. Depending on the type of company, employees may also drive to and from the shop multiple times a day – offering regular opportunities to charge the vehicles.
Rivian, which is backed by Ford and Amazon, has agreed to build 100,000 electric delivery vans for the online retailer.
“Commercial vehicles typically, or many of them, return to the depot at night,” Biermann said. “You only need to install the infrastructure at the depot, so it's a much simpler, a much easier problem to solve than deploying chargers for the retail fleet everywhere in the city.”
A persistent challenge, by contrast, is not only cost, but efficiency: Catering companies, florists, contractors, and delivery services won’t want to wait for their vehicles to charge before heading to the next job.
The transportation sector presents one of the biggest areas for achieving emissions reductions to slow climate change. In the U.S., transportation accounted for the greatest share of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions in 2017: 29%, compared to 28% from electricity generation and 22% from industry. Globally, the transportation sector generated 14% of the world’s emissions.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
