Welcome to Arrival's R&D lab in Banbury in the UK. I'm Avinash, I'm the President, Chief Strategy Officer for the company and what we're doing here
is we're focused on the commercial vehicle segment, and producing best in class vehicles that have a similar price to fossil fueled ones and a lower
total cost of ownership. We're focused on the commercial vehicle segment, that's a typically under-served segment that has really taken the same
approach for the last 50 to 100 years. That is the typical approach of the industry, which is to manufacture in very large factories, and ship those
vehicles around the world. Now the issue with that is, one is the price, as we're going electric, we're removing the fossil fuel powertrain and
replacing it with an electric powertrain and that's having a price premium to turning electric. The second is there's no flexibility in the design.
And what you find in talking to commercial vehicle operators, that the way they use the vehicles actually changes depending on the local environment
they're in and at Arrival we've managed to solve both of those problems. So we have an electric vehicle that is a similar and competitive price point
to fossil fueled ones but we're also able to manufacture them locally through these Microfactories. So that means we're able to customise the
vehicles and produce them at basically any volume and still maintain profitability, but at the same time, provide our customers with the best in
class product that's fit for purpose for their needs. Today, we'll take you through how we do that, we'll show you the products, we'll show you our
components, how we get the cost down, and how we increase the innovation in the vehicle. And we'll show you our robotic cell, which is one of the
enablers for the Microfactory. And you'll also get a first look at our composite plan. One of the ways we drive our costs down is through the use
of these pioneering Microfactories. So all of the technologies are designed upfront to be assembled using a low footprint, low CapEx Microfactory.
What's important about these Microfactories is they can be deployed anywhere, you don't need any special buildings, you can use existing
warehouses, and you can convert them to production plants very quickly. So this is actually a fundamental change to the way the industry is currently
working, which, which are these large central factories. Ours is a distributed model but what's key here is that everything is designed
upfront to be assembled using these. And what's important is all of that passes through a software loop to validate that the Microfactories can
build any of our products. We have hundreds of people working in our robotics department creating these flexible robotic cells and these cells
form the backbone of the Microfactory. In a typical plant, you have an assembly line and if there's any change to the vehicle, you actually have
to change the line, which is significant CapEx and time. In an Arrival Microfactory, using these flexible cells, we're simply able to reprogram
the order that the vehicle goes to each cell and the operations of the cell itself, and we can actually produce different variants. The benefits of
this approach is immense. A typical factory will use thousands of robots to do production. And an Arrival Microfactory, we use 70.
Robotics have been used in the auto industry for a long time. But what's different about Arrival's approach is the flexibility that we have. So
instead of pre-programming all the robots to operate in a certain way, we're able to configure and use computer vision to actually produce freedom
in the cell. So for example...
what I've just done is placed the part randomly on a autonomous mobile robot and this is actually pretty significant. Instead of having to be
precise in terms of where all the layouts of the parts will be for the robots to understand their process, I'm able to basically put it anywhere,
and we use computer vision for the robots to track and perform the task.
To enable the cost saving and the ability to produce our vehicles using Microfactories, we have designed all of the components in house, we're
vertically integrated, so it's the hardware, the software, the robotics, it's all done within Arrival. And what you're seeing here is the type of
components that we're building. So all of the high voltage and low voltage systems we design in house so that includes our Modular Battery, our BMS,
Traction Inverter, DC, DC converter, Human Machine Interface, these are all actually done within Arrival.
Designing these in house also enables us to upgrade the vehicle over time. So for example, with our HMI system, the Human Machine Interface, if
there's ever new technologies that come out, we're actually able to replace this component with the later version. That means all of our vehicles are
also autonomous ready. Right now the autonomous hardware cycle's on a 12 to 18 month refresh cycle, and the existing vehicle architectures can't deal
with that. With Arrival, we're able to swap in and swap out those technologies as they become more mature. This approach prolongs the life of
the vehicle and also saves the commercial vehicle operators cost in the fact that they can reuse the same asset and upgrad it over time.
We're here in Arrival's composite factory. And what you're about to see here is one of the ways that we reduce the cost of an electric vehicle to
help become competitive with fossil fueled ones. So to do that, we had to be vertically integrated and we've looked at everything. So we've really
questioned everything from the ground up. And what you're going to see here is what we're doing in terms of how we look at the materials that are used
to make panels, which in the typical industry has been steel and that's forced the requirement to have really large metal stamping plants and paint
shops to be able to get to the finishes of traditional vehicles. But what we're doing is something totally different and unique to the industry. So
in terms of the production process, it comes off the roller, we laser cut it, and then through a series of robotic processes, we move it to trimming,
moulding, de-moulding are all done through robotics. When the panel then comes off, we've essentially got the shape and size that we need. So this
is an example here of in-mould coating. So right off the mould, we're able to actually have this colour inbuilt into the material and what this means
is that in the event that the vehicle gets scratched, for example, the colour is actually part of the actual panel. So you don't have the typical
scratches or scuff marks that you get or paint that gets scratched off. So that means that the operator doesn't actually have to either re-spray this
panel or even replace it, so that really helps the commercial vehicle operators reduce the total cost of ownership.
This is an example of a direct comparison between steel and the Arrival composite and you'll see in a typical industry approach, when we drive the
truck over it, you can see that the panel itself is significantly damaged and this will require replacement. When you look at the Arrival composite,
with the added durability that we get, you can see that the form is basically intact and you know, with a bit of cleaning, you'll be able to
use that vehicle as you were before the accident. And what's really interesting about this material is not only is it really durable, it's also
extremely light. So this becomes a key benefit to getting added range for the same size vehicle. Here you're seeing a door, a van door, again using
the same material and you'll also see we're able to get Class A finishes with this. So the same material can also be used in the interior, so we get
the added benefit of using the same material both on the interior and exterior panels. This example of an interior liner that's basically done
with the same material as well. Sustainability is a really important part of the Arrival ethos, and with this material it was actually designed
around sustainability in mind. So not only do you replace the panels less, which means you can extend the life of the existing panel, but when you do
have to replace the panel, we can actually break them back down into their raw materials, we can use them as filler parts, or we can actually, using a
chemical process, recycle them back all the way through the end of life back to recreating new panels.
So we use the same technologies that you see today, not just to make a van but we also recently announced the bus. And this bus has really been
designed all around the user experience, both for the driver, the passenger, but also the operators that use them. In driving down the cost,
we've also ensured that these vehicles are also best in class vehicles. So for example, the Van compared to its competitive set, it has better payload
and it has better cargo volume for the same size vehicle. The Bus has advanced safety features, it has a fully flat floor for passengers to be
able to get in and out really easily, and it's a modular design so we can quickly change the shapes to enable different local variants.
Thanks, everyone. It's been my pleasure to show you the inside of the Arrival Microfactory and take you through some of the unique things that
we're doing in this industry.