Strategic Investment to Develop Commercial EVs
Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. will jointly make a strategic investment of 100 million euros in U.K. commercial electric vehicle (EV) company Arrival. The two Korean carmakers plan to cooperate with Arrival in developing small commercial EVs for downtown areas of cities and actively respond to the rapidly growing green car market in Europe.
The two sides held an investment agreement-signing ceremony at the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul on Jan. 16 in the presence of Avinashi Lugoobur, chief strategy officer (CSO) of Arrival, Dennis Sverdlov, chief executive officer (CEO) of Arrival and Albert Biermann, president and head of R&D for Hyundai Motor Group.
Under this agreement, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will invest 80 million euros and 20 million euros, respectively, in Arrival.
Founded in 2015, Arrival specializes in the development of electric vans and buses, and has production plants and R&D bases in the United States, Germany, Israel and Russia.
Arrival's strength lies in its modular skateboard platform technology. It produces batteries and driving motors in the form of standardized modules and mounts them on a skateboard-shaped platform.
Hyundai and Kia will jointly develop commercial EVs with Arrival through this investment. The two automakers expect synergies from the combination of their car production capacities and Arrival's modular EV platform technology.