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CHARLOTTE – The London-based technology company, Arrival, which develops electric lightweight commercial vehicles, is bringing its North American headquarters to Charlotte.
The company, which was founded in 2015, will invest approximately $3 million in the South End neighborhood of the Queen City and plans to hire around 150 employees, the company said in a statement published on their website.
Until January, when the company announced a $110 million investment from Kia and Hyundai, Arrival was a relatively unknown electric vehicle startup.
The company continued to make announcements throughout 2020, including the announcement in October that it will build its first United States microfactory in Rock Hill, South Carolina, a suburb of the Charlotte metropolitan area, investing $46 million and anticipating the creation of 240 new jobs and an additional investment of $118 million from funds managed by BlackRock to support the project.
Then, the company announced the expansion of its leadership team including a new CEO and announced its plans to merge with CIIG Merger Corp. to become a publicly-traded company that will be listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ARVL, as soon as 2021.
According to press statements, the company has developed a new method of designing and producing zero-emission vehicles using proprietary hardware and vertically-integrated technology while manufacturing the vehicles in the firm’s microfactories.
The company is currently developing two models, a van and a bus, and in addition to announcing the selection of Charlotte for its corporate headquarters office in North America, the company shared that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Charlotte, setting out a plan to assist the city in achieving the stated goals in the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP) including for all fleet vehicles and facilities to be fueled by 100 percent zero-carbon sources by 2030.
According to the company, the project was a collaborative effort between the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and the City of Charlotte with support from the North Carolina Governor’s Office and the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
“This partnership forms a roadmap in how we design a regionally Integrated Transportation Ecosystem that pulls together components like EVs, charging infrastructure and digital mobility services, to enable more cities to achieve their zero-emission goals, connect local communities and future-proof transportation networks, ” said Mike Ableson, Arrival CEO of Arrival Automotive, in a statement.
