One of the world’s largest investors, BlackRock, is due to put $118m into UK electric bus and van startup, Arrival.
The company, which makes electric buses and vans with a 300 mile range, will see a value of around £3bn. BlackRock has now joined with the existing start-up supporters – Hyundai and Kia – who ploughed £100bn into the firm in January 2020.
London-based Arrival was founded in 2015 with plans to develop pure electric vans and commercial vehicles with 300 mile ranges and lowering ownership costs by 50% from ICEs.
Current business includes deals with UPS in America and Europe for 10,000 vans and trials with DHL and Royal Mail on its logistics fleet.
Cash from BlackRock and other investors will be used to scale-up a network of small scale manufacturing facilities across Europe and America which it hopes will achieve profitability quicker than larger scale factories.
