Hyundai Kia drop £85 million in to UK Electric CV startup Arrival

Hyundai Kia is looking to expand its electric offerings in the commercial vehicle arena, investing £85 million in Arrival, a UK electric CV startup.

There may be a huge push going on to get car buyers in to electric cars – although there’s still no real evidence that will happen any time soon – but one place electric vehicles should be making huge inroads is in the commercial vehicle market.

Rather than fleets of chuggy, dirty diesel delivery vans spewing NOx and particulates in to our towns and cities, it makes much more sense to have EVs doing the delivery donkey work. Especially if the electric commercial vehicles cost much the same as ICE CVs.

That’s the ambition of UK startup Arrival, and Hyundai/Kia has seen what they have in the works and have decided they want a piece – an £85 million piece, to be precise.

Arrival has developed a Skateboard Platform for commercial EVs which is scalable and modular and incorporates a battery pack, electric motor and driveline components, allowing fast creation of a diverse range of eco-friendly vans and buses.

That’s what Hyundai/Kia are interested in, and their investment will allow them to supply exactly that, built on Arrival’s Platform, to European logistics companies and mobility companies providing on-demand and shuttle services.

Hyundai’s Albert Biermann said:

The eco-friendly vehicle market in Europe is expected to grow rapidly due to the introduction of further environmental regulations.

Through the joint development of electric commercial vehicles with Arrival, we will be able to gain a competitive advantage and progressively establish our leadership in the global eco-friendly vehicle market, with Europe at the forefront.

Sounds like a plan.