Arrival Plug & Play Newsletter: Volume 11

4 min readOct 8, 2021

Welcome to the Arrival newsletter.

Welcome to Plug & Play, bringing you the latest Arrival news. We have announced a number of partnerships relating to our vehicles, infrastructure and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and the new-improved Charge Electric Mustang was revealed.

Quick Charge

Everything you need to know

STMicroelectronics Cooperates with Arrival to Provide Leading-Edge Technologies for Next-Generation Electric Vehicles
Collaboration includes products dedicated to processing, power and battery management.

Hitachi and Arrival to deliver electric buses and infrastructure
Together, both companies will work with operators to deploy integrated end to end solutions that incorporate all aspects of owning and operating Arrival vehicles; this includes items such as charging infrastructure and digital tools.

Arrival Partners With Ambarella to Deliver Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)
The module will be used to enable autonomous driving (AD) and ADAS features in the Arrival Bus and Van.

The Brand New Electric Mustang by Charge Cars
Take a glimpse at the make up of this special muscle car that features Arrival components and a brand new Ford licensed bodyshell.

r/AskArrivalAnything

“Will the Arrival Van be available to purchase worldwide?”

Yes that is the goal! To start with we will be focusing on North America and Europe — where we are already deploying our Microfactories. After that we can bring our vehicles to new territories, depending on demand. Our rapidly scalable Microfactories give us the flexibility to deploy them where they are most needed.

“Why do you not use solar panels on the roof top of your vans?”

The idea of putting solar panels on the roof of our vehicles makes so much sense in theory, charging vehicles with renewable energy as you drive or while they’re parked, but sadly it tends to be less viable in practice. Adding solar panels to a vehicle adds weight, which means you’re using more energy while driving. Our vehicles are typically in the city where you might not have direct sunlight, and the added cost goes against our ethos of reducing the barriers to electric transportation. We’re not saying we’d never do it, we’re keeping our eye on the tech to see if and when it becomes viable for us.

“How are you tackling polluting particles produced by tyre wear and brakes? I understand that regenerative braking is part of the solution, but EV’s weigh more than ICE and are accused of causing higher levels of tyre wear as a result. These two areas where particate dust is produced are still of concern, and being used by the anti car lobby to undermine the case for electric vehicles.”

Our goal is to reduce tailpipe particulates to zero, which is a big chunk of the problem. In terms of remaining particulates, brake wear can be tackled by automakers because brakes are contained entirely in the vehicle and so it’s within our gift to tackle that. Brake particulates are reduced with regenerative braking, braking through the motor rather than friction through the brake pads, which also has the benefit of recharging the battery.

Tyre wear is a challenging issue because it’s systematic — both roads and tyres produce particulates. We are working on reducing particulates from tyres by producing lightweight vehicles using our proprietary composite. A much bigger factor than weight is driver behaviour, where software can be used to limit acceleration and cornering speeds. The Arrival Bus is a great example of reducing particulates by simply taking private passenger vehicles off the road — fewer vehicles = lower particulate emissions.

To submit a question to r/AskArrivalAnything send us a message on Twitter or Facebook using #AskArrivalAnything. As we continue to develop solutions for cities that help drive sustainability goals, your questions, feedback and comments form a critical part of the process.