12:23 pm, January 30, 2020
THE start-up British electric van manufacturer Arrival has secured a massive deal with UPS, the global parcel delivery company.
UPS has placed an order for a whopping 10,000 Arrival vehicles and plans to roll them out across the UK, mainland Europe and North America by 2024.
The exact value of the deal hasn’t been stated, although Arrival says it is ‘worth hundreds of millions of euros each year’, while UPS also has the option to take another 10,000 vehicles over the next four years.
The American delivery firm’s venture capital arm has made an unspecified investment in Arrival as well.
Carlton Rose, president of UPS global fleet maintenance and engineering, said: ‘Our investment and partnership with Arrival is directly aligned with UPS’s transformation strategy, led by the deployment of cutting-edge technologies.
‘These vehicles will be among the world’s most advanced package delivery vehicles, redefining industry standards for electric, connected and intelligent vehicle solutions.’
The news comes after it was announced that DPD and Nissan have agreed a deal that will see the Japanese manufacturer supply 300 e-NV200s by May this year to the French-based delivery firm’s UK fleet, which will more than triple DPD’s EV count in the country to 450.
Craig Cheetham, Car Dealer’s resident LCV correspondent, said: ‘Arrival is a company I’ve had my eye on for some time and this is an astonishing development for them.
‘When the company first revealed its funky-looking light truck two years ago, it was making a lot of noise about the vehicle’s potential in the zero-emission delivery market and was waiting for a major fleet player to come forward in order to kickstart the project.
‘UPS is a company that has been going electric over the past three years and is an obvious partner for Arrival. This is great news for British manufacturing, design and engineering and will surely put Arrival on the map.’
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