Why Arrival is pausing work on its electric bus and car projects

As it struggles to manage its cash reserves, the Anglo-American EV startup Arrival has put its ground-breaking bus and automobile projects on hold. The Financial Times reports that the firm, which announced last month that it would cut a third of its staff, will now focus on finishing the delivery van. Arrival said it had up to 20,000 orders with UPS for the vehicle and anticipated delivering the first models by fall. That will hopefully relieve some of the pressure on the company's bottom line, as well as raise its share price, which has fallen 90 percent since it went public through a SPAC last year.

The electric bus project that began with Arrival actually led to the birth of the company, and it already has a variety of prototypes ready for real-world use. Its automobile, intended to be sold to ride-hailing drivers, was in the prototype stage, and the firm had hired Tom Elvidge from Uber to lead the effort. The Financial Times' story claims that both initiatives are on hold for the time being, and that they will likely be resurrected as soon as Arrival starts to make money. However, due to the approaching recession and the fact that so much venture capital has vanished into transport startups like Uber, such projects may suffer from a lack of funding.

The most distressing part of all of this is that Arrival's dedication to revolutionizing public transportation was genuinely innovative. Buses are a common sight in almost every town, and while it's always better for the environment to take the bus than drive your own car, making them even more environmentally friendly was a fantastic idea. It's not surprising that the public project has been discontinued in favor of the fleet of logistics vehicles, but it's definitely not a good sign for future public transportation.