British electric vehicle maker Arrival has called in the administrators after failing to raise rescue funding to launch its debut electric van, leaving around 170 jobs at risk.

Its collapse comes just one week after trading in the company was suspended on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange, prompted by Arrival’s failure to comply with its listing standards after failing to file accounts for 2022. 

The start-up, which has two factories in Banbury and Bicester, Oxfordshire, has been struggling to raise long-term funding for some time. In January last year it cut 800 jobs globally.

The EY administrators said that Arrival’s liquidity position had been “impacted by challenging market and macroeconomic conditions resulting in delays in getting the group’s products to market”.

They added: “The joint administrators are now exploring options for the sale of the business and assets of the companies, including its electric vehicle platforms, software, intellectual property and R&D assets, for the benefit of creditors.”

The company has 400 staff, of which 172 are in the UK and directly affected by the administration.

Arrival was launched in 2014 and soon had the support of UPS, which invested in the start-up in 2020 and ordered 10,000 Generation 2 Electric Vehicles. Royal Mail also signed up for a trial run of its electric van (pictured), hailing the EVs as “worth the wait”.

The start up, which in 2021 was valued at more than $15bn, employed around 250 staff at its factories in Banbury and Bicester, with the rest of its 1,600 workforce located in the US, Germany, Russia and Israel.

However, in January last year the manufacturer started to show signs of strain, announcing that it was to cut hundreds of jobs globally. It then shifted its focus to the US market and the development of its US van product. Production was slated to start in the US in 2024, subject to raising additional capital.

However in November last year Arrival warned that it might not have enough cash to keep its business going toward the end of 2024, and revealed that it was under the threat of being delisted from Nasdaq due to delays in filing financial statements and failing to hold an annual meeting of shareholders. 

Last month it emerged it was in talks with EY about the possibility of appointing administrators should it fail to raise rescue funding.

 

 

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