One of Britain's most advanced vehicle factories, owned by EV start-up Arrival in Bicester, is nearing the day of making its first parcel-delivery van, and Autocar has enjoyed an exclusive first look.
The site is the first in the world to use a ‘microfactory’ production system, in which a usual assembly line is replaced by flexible manufacturing cells, with the design, layout and low output of the site established for supplying the local market.
“We’re all about being local, selling locally, configuring our plant to local demand and being flexible in production,” said EV platform boss James Broomer. Arrival’s manufacturing revolution is revealed by its van’s high-tech interior, rather than the exterior of its two anonymous industrial sheds.
One building of 120,000sq ft houses the body plant, where composite thermoset panels are heat-formed on two lines of vacuum presses, while the second, 180,000sq ft building is the assembly hall, fitted out with Kuka robotic-arm manufacturing cells and logistics handled by a fleet of 150 computer-controlled mobile robots called Wemo. When we visited, Bicester was bustling in the ramp-up phase, with engineers and production staff focused on trialling production processes, installing robotics arms in the production cells and fine-tuning the Wemos’ programming.
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Capacity is 5000 per year, doubled with a second shift, but Arrival has delayed delivery of its first vans until the second half of 2022, so the race is on to get the new production system working some time in the third quarter to hit a target of 400- 500 delivered by year’s end.
“We have the sprint mentality,” smiles Broomer.
Much is resting on this start of production. Arrival has raised nearly $1 billion in funding from investors including the Hyundai Motor Group, asset-management giant Blackrock and courier UPS, which has contracted to buy 10,000 vans globally.
The potential business win as the world scrabbles to reach net-zero emissions by 2030/2035 has resulted in a valuation of Arrival, yet to turn a profit, of £1.76 billion – almost twice that of Aston Martin.
Arrival’s adoption of the microfactory system goes hand in hand with its radical van design, which is more like that of low-volume sports cars like the Lotus Elise than a typical steel box on wheels.
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While this is most interesting and using light vans makes sense there is no evaluation of the total energy needed to manufacture theses vehicles. If we are to live , or our grandchildren, in a low emission world total energy and lifetime use of energy and recycling energy has to be stated.
While this is most interesting and using light vans makes sense there is no evaluation of the total energy needed to manufacture theses vehicles. If we are to live , or our grandchildren, in a low emission world total energy and lifetime use of energy and recycling energy has to be stated.
While this is most interesting and using light vans makes sense there is no evaluation of the total energy needed to manufacture theses vehicles. If we are to live , or our grandchildren, in a low emission world total energy and lifetime use of energy and recycling energy has to be stated.