Arrival and Uber to Collaborate on Electric Car for Ride-Hailing Industry

LONDON, UK, May 4, 2021 – Arrival, the global technology company creating electric vehicles using its game-changing technologies, is partnering with Uber to develop an affordable, purpose-built electric vehicle (EV) for ride-hailing drivers. The Arrival Car is expected to enter production in Q3 2023.

The Arrival Car will address the global need to shift ride-hailing and car sharing services, with over 30 million estimated drivers across the ride-hailing sector, to electric to reduce emissions and improve air quality in cities. Uber has committed to becoming a fully electric mobility platform in London by 2025 and by 2030 across North America and Europe.

As a typical ride-hailing vehicle will on average drive 45-50,000km a year, versus 12,000km for a typical vehicle, Arrival Car will prioritise driver comfort, safety, and convenience, while ensuring the passengers enjoy a premium experience. With this in mind, Arrival will collaborate with Uber drivers in the design process over the coming months to ensure the Arrival Car reflects the needs of professional drivers and their passengers, with the final vehicle design expected to be revealed before the end of 2021.

Following the launch of Uber’s Clean Air Plan in London two years ago, more than £135m has been raised to support drivers with the cost of switching to a fully electric vehicle. Uber’s focus is now to encourage drivers to apply for EV Assistance under the Clean Air Plan. This will help clean up urban transport and drive a mass market for EVs.

The Arrival Car will join Arrival’s previously announced commercial products, the Bus and Van, to provide cities with a multi-modal zero-emission transportation ecosystem that they require in order to meet their sustainability goals over the coming years. This integrated transportation ecosystem will create cleaner, more equitable mobility solutions for people living in cities that Arrival believes will have a radical impact on their health and opportunities.

Ride-hailing plays a key role in creating accessible and efficient multi-modal transportation systems reducing both total numbers of vehicles in cities, as well as emissions, which is expected to have an oversized impact on real world pollution globally. Arrival’s revolutionary Microfactories will enable decentralised production in cities around the world, producing vehicles close to areas of demand, using local talent and paying local taxes. This strategy also enables the production of vehicles specific for the region to service the many markets seeing rapid growth in ride-hailing and car sharing.

Tom Elvidge, SVP Arrival Mobility UK said: “We are confident that electrifying ride-hailing vehicles will have an outsized impact on cities, and we are keen to support drivers as they manage this transition. Arrival Car will be designed around drivers’ needs to create a vehicle that is affordable, durable and desirable. We have a great partnership with UPS to create a best-in-class electric delivery vehicle, and we hope to replicate that success with Uber as we develop the best possible product for ride hailing that elevates the experience of the passenger and improves drivers’ health, safety and finances.”

Jamie Heywood, Uber’s Regional General Manager for Northern and Eastern Europe said: “As our cities open up we have an opportunity to make sure that urban transport is cleaner than ever before. Uber is committed to helping every driver in London upgrade to an EV by 2025, and thanks to our Clean Air Plan more than £135m has been raised to support this ambition. Our focus is now on encouraging drivers to use this money to help them upgrade to an electric vehicle, and our partnership with Arrival will help us achieve this goal.”

Uber Green recently launched in London, giving passengers the ability to select a fully electric vehicle at no extra cost, while drivers pay a lower service fee.

So far in London, more than 3.5 million trips have taken place in fully electric vehicles, helping to reduce emissions and improve air quality in the capital. Uber is committing to double the number of drivers in EVs by the end of this year as part of the roadmap for all cars on the app to be fully electric by 2025.

Arrival (NASDAQ: ARVL) went public on 25th March 2021 and the Arrival Car is the realisation of the Small Vehicle Platform referenced in the company’s Investor Deck. It is expected to go into production in Q3 2023.

Arrival is reinventing the automotive industry with its entirely new approach to the design and assembly of electric vehicles. Low CapEx, rapidly scalable Microfactories combined with proprietary in-house developed components, materials and software, enable the production of best in class vehicles competitively priced to fossil fuel variants and with a substantially lower Total Cost of Ownership. This transformative approach provides cities globally with the solutions they need to create sustainable urban environments and exceptional experiences for their citizens. Arrival was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in the United Kingdom, with over 1,800 global employees located in offices across the United States, Germany, Netherlands, Israel, Russia, and Luxembourg. The company is deploying its first three Microfactories in North and South Carolina, US and Bicester, UK in 2021.

Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement.

We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 10 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding Arrival’s ability to design, develop and produce the Arrival Car as and when expected, the expectation that the Arrival Car will address the global need to shift ride sharing to electric, the expectation that the Uber Clean Air Plan will drive a stronger market for electric vehicles, and the expectation that an integrated transportation ecosystem will have a radical impact on health and opportunities and an outsized impact on pollution globally. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Such statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on management’s belief or interpretation of information currently available. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document, including, but not limited to: (i) the impact of COVID-19 on Arrival’s business; (ii) the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which Arrival operates, (iii) the risk that Arrival and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize Arrival’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so, (iv) the risk that Arrival may never achieve or sustain profitability; (v) the risk that Arrival experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations, (vi) the risk that third-parties suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; (vii) the risk that the utilization of Microfactories will not provide the expected benefits due to, among other things, the inability to locate appropriate buildings to use as Microfactories, Microfactories needing a larger than anticipated factory footprint, and the inability of Arrival to deploy Microfactories in the anticipated time frame; (viii) the risk that the orders that have been placed for vehicles, including the order from UPS, are cancelled or modified; (ix) the risk of product liability or regulatory lawsuits or proceedings relating to Arrival’s products and services; and (x) the risk that Arrival will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; and (xi) the risk that Arrival is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of the prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 26, 2021 and other documents filed by Arrival with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Arrival assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Arrival does not give any assurance that Arrival will achieve its expectations.