Electric van maker Arrival, one of the many EV startups targeting the commercial space, plans to reorganize its business and cut about 30% of its global staff.
The London-based company says its still on track to begin making vans in the third quarter of this year in the UK. It did not say whether or not its planned Charlotte, North Carolina, plant is still set for a fourth quarter production launch.
Supply chain disruptions have been particularly damaging to automakers, hitting electric vehicles the hardest as companies have struggled to obtain lithium-ion materials for batteries and rare earth minerals for motors and other systems.
Tesla, General Motors, Ford and others have raised prices on EVs this year to offset those costs. Arrival’s main selling point was a less-expensive electric commercial van, so it has less flexibility in pricing than some of its rivals.
In a filing with regulators, company officials said their proposed spending and job cuts “are the right step at this time to ensure the long term success of the business and enable it to service this demand in the face of a unique economic environment that is seeing both new players and traditional OEMs facing supply chain issues, an ongoing pandemic, geopolitical tensions and rising inflation.”
