Banbury-based electric vehicle start-up to create 50 jobs at new microfactory

Arrival has just agreed a 15 year lease on a 120,600 sq ft manufacturing unit at Link 9 Bicester.

The automotive microfactory manufacturing plant is expected to be operational in 2021 and will turn out 10,000 vehicles a year.

The moves comes after Arrival secured an £85 million investment from South Korean car firms Hyundai and Kia which will be used by Arrival to fund the next stage of its development.

Glenn Saint, Chief of Commercial Vehicles of Arrival, said: “Arrival is revolutionising electric vehicles with our Generation 2 solution that means customers can buy a purpose built electric vehicle for the same price or less than a petrol or diesel equivalent.

“Critical to making this possible is manufacturing in microfactories which can serve the local community and respond rapidly to local demand.”

Arrival employs 600 people worldwide but that is set to rise to 800.

Tom Barton, director of commercial agents VSL, previously secured Arrival’s manufacturing facility in Banbury for its first electric truck assembly plant in 2017 as well as a R&D facility at Oxford Business Park the previous year which they have since outgrown.

He said: “The expansion of Arrival is truly impressive and a testament to the technology and investment confidence in the business model.”