New electric vehicle producer Arrival has impressed with its talk of radical new technology and microfactories, but what drives the company? CBW takes a closer look
The name Arrival has appeared a few times in the pages of CBW, with announcements of the firm’s new bus promising to deliver electric mobility at affordable cost. But is this a lot of marketing hype from a company which has, as yet, not delivered a single vehicle, or is there more to it? FirstGroup, which is to trial four of the manufacturer’s Gamma Zero buses at an as-yet undisclosed depot seems to think it is at least worth looking at more closely, as does parcel firm UPS, which has a standing order for 10,000 delivery vans. With a stated aim to disrupt the market, and based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, who is behind the new arrival on the bus scene, and what drives the company forward?
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Most readers of this magazine will know that the bus and coach industry in the UK is a traditional one, and broadly split between big groups and smaller, family firms. Is it ready for a radical rethink in vehicle design? Arrival certainly has an uphill battle on its hands to convince operators that its Gamma Zero bus is what they need, but if promised cost savings over other similar vehicles are as marked as the firm says, it could have a head start. And with companies across the country starting to realise the need to adapt, and starting to move their operations to centre around electric and hydrogen vehicles, if any time is going to be good to drive a change in expectations and aspirations, surely now is that time. Whilst some of the traditional manufacturers might seem to have the markets sewn up, the arrival of the likes of Yutong, which is rapidly gaining a foothold, as well as the experience of companies such as Ebusco in the Netherlands, show that it is possible to gain ground, either as an established company in a new market, or as a new entrant with new ideas.
Arrival was founded in 2015 by Russian-born tech billionaire and former politician Denis Sverdlov. Although the firm says it remains committed to Britain, Arrival recently followed a path which has become popular and merged with a ‘SPAC’, or Special Acquisition Company, to provide it with a route for a quick listing on the US stock market, a move which values the company at around £4bn. It has received the backing of some very high-profile investors, notably Hyundai and Kia, which invested £73m into the startup last year. It sees its Gamma Zero bus as the tool cities need as they adapt to a new normal whilst striving to make bus travel appealing, sustainable and financially viable.
Although few details have yet been released, Arrival said when it launched the concept that it has designed the bus with an exceptional passenger experience front of mind, and it is equipped with features that promote a positive perception of public transportation and create an environment evoking a sense of space, cleanliness and well-being in a world with
a heightened awareness of hygiene and personal space.
The company revealed to CBW that the bus will be of modular design and available in lengths of 10.5 and 12m, with the capability to produce up to 15m lengths in 1.5m increments. Maximum capacity is quoted as 125, depending on size, seating configuration and specification, with a range of up to 400km depending on
duty cycle.
Kwame Nyanning, Chief of Experience at Arrival, explained that: “Arrival’s core focus is to make your everyday experience radically better, whether that is your daily journey on an Arrival bus, or through your work as a driver delivering parcels from an Arrival van. We are working with cities to make every touchpoint within the urban transportation ecosystem not only better but also more equitable and sustainable. Recent events have made it clear the world needs to take action now in order to improve lives and effect real change.”
Arrival aims to partner with governments and cities to create what it calls ‘an integrated public transport ecosystem’ that supports their net-zero emission goals. The company says it is also developing cars for sharing, taxis, delivery robots, charging stations, and digital services which it says enable ‘best-in-class’ public transport without the need for subsidies, which it says is possible because its solutions are intelligently designed, and give price parity with diesel vehicles as well as cost savings over the vehicle lifetime.
The firm says that its plan to use scaleable, easy-to-set-up microfactories capable of assembling all vehicles from its portfolio is what will give it the edge and enable it to produce electric vehicles at a cost comparable to current diesel models – a noble claim, and one which might be put to the test sooner rather than later, with auto giant Ford announcing an all-electric version of its Transit, one of the cornerstones of the van market. Unless Arrival has new battery technology under wraps, the cost savings will have to come from that new and innovative production method: Is Arrival about to revolutionise vehicle manufacture by stepping away from the traditional ways and starting with a clean sheet of paper, or is there a reason why the traditional builders – bus or van – have stuck to the tried and tested methods? One thing is for sure, the company’s ethos and methods are very different to those of many competitors.
‘Hottest start-up’
Joe Griston is Arrival’s Chief of Talent, and takes over the story to explain more about the company’s ethos and philosophy when it comes to recruitment, another area in which the company says it wants to set itself apart from the crowd. “I act as the Chief Storyteller at Arrival. Here, culture is our product, which in turn, creates our technology. Four years ago I undertook a new challenge. To create the world’s best company, and do this by building the world’s best team, with the world’s best culture. Plus, disrupt an industry pulled down by legacy. That industry is the automotive industry, and that company is Arrival.
“Adding to this challenge, we made the decision not to release any vapourware, meaning the first time anyone may hear of Arrival would be when our products were near completion. To be clear, in our early days there would be no detailed website, few renders or concept videos released to the press, no early marketing push and no employer branding. So how to build the world’s best company that nobody will know about until the products are real?
“Fast forward to today, we have built Arrival to ‘unicorn’ status multiple times over (a term which refers to start-ups valued at £770m or more). We have the world excited by our products and we have a culture within the company that is unrivalled by any other business I have seen. At the end of 2020 LinkedIn awarded Arrival as the ‘Number 1 Hottest Start-up in the UK’ according to its data. So how did we achieve this?
“Initially, it started with an honest realisation and trust in the good of people. Awesome employees are not hard to find, there is no ‘war for talent,’ the backbone of any business is ready to work hard and waiting to be found. Let’s be clichéd for a moment: the definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviours and expecting a different outcome. Apparently, Albert Einstein said that, and it perfectly describes the recruitment situation at every company. Doing the same thing as everyone else and expecting better results. This, therefore, becomes the biggest opportunity in successfully growing a business and its people.”
Going right back to the start of the chain and abandoning the traditional recruitment process is the key, Joe thinks: “In the UK in 2020, Arrival hired 442 people, yet only four of these came through a job advert. Technology now makes this easy. However, be very aware that candidates are savvy about bad recruitment techniques. Be as different as you possibly
can be to everyone else. The most important aspect of headhunting is to start a conversation, that’s it.
“In a world full of over-eager recruiters promising the world, do the opposite. Human nature dictates that the less you tell someone, the more intrigued they become. Last year we hired one of the world’s most in-demand people, simply by connecting with them on LinkedIn and sending them a message.
“We also struggled to hire someone in an area of expertise that was not naturally aligned with our culture, as it was a very corporate position. In a simple online exchange, the candidate messaged me first after I sent a connection request and instantly showed they spoke our language. Within the space of an hour and without speaking to this person, through some simple messages, they showed they may indeed fit our culture. They quickly proved they understood our cause and spoke our relaxed language, which is very relevant to this position. It is amazing how much you can tell in such a simple exchange. Remember, reduce complexity to maximise functionality. Rather than sending expensive and over descriptive emails, simply connect with candidates and treat them with respect.”
Another key part of Arrival’s youthful culture is to respect potential, rather than judge purely on experience. “If you interview someone and instantly forget about them after the interview, don’t hire them. If you interview someone and wish you had more time to continue the conversation, consider them,” Joe continued. “At Arrival, we doubled down on this by tearing up most job descriptions. If someone has an amazing personal fit with you and your team, they can potentially pick up experience or knowledge of systems very easily. We understood the abilities and attributes required in our teams and sought out the best people. Rather than telling the candidates what we were looking for, we gave them real-world challenges at interview and described our projects. Then if successful, the final stage of the interview was for the candidate to write their own job description. This instantly showed the candidate not only understood their tasks, but could mould them and be immersed by our creative culture before they had even joined the business. Moreover, look at how much effort and imagination a candidate will put into this job description, as these descriptions can be far more than just text and a few bullet points, which then becomes another very powerful selection tool.”
In a statement that brings to mind a few coach and bus industry figures, Joe added: “Senior employees or leaders should be in their position because of the great impact they make, at any stage of their career.”
Addressing the sceptics who might be saying ‘I have been building buses for 15 years and I tell you your bus won’t work, you need my expertise to bring you back down to reality,’ Joe contended: “I have never actually been on a bus that’s nice, and we certainly do not want to simply make a bus electric. We must improve upon it in every way. This kind of person will not naturally experiment nor adapt to our culture.”
At the other end of the scale, he highlighted those who think along the lines of ‘as an engineer, I want to break the rules and augment the laws of physics.’
Throwing modesty out of the window, Joe said the kind of people Arrival want are the ones who believe that not working with Arrival now is like not working with the Wright Brothers just before they invented the airplane.
Talking about LinkedIn’s recognition of Arrival as number one hottest UK start-up, Joe added: “We respect this award as it is not based upon opinion, but upon analysing the quality of people we have hired, the great employee tenure we enjoy, the quality of company that our employees join us from, the rate we hire great people, and the engagement of our LinkedIn profile page. Moreover, as our techniques did not follow traditional recruitment processes, they required very little budget to action.
“This is how we built Arrival. Today, we have over 1,600 employees globally, so does this mean the same techniques still work now we are this size? Let’s assume the answer is no, so we continue to experiment to understand the innovation behind building our company. Think differently, embrace change, and let me know how you get on.”
Hype?
Where will all this lead? Certainly, Arrival’s PR hype since it launched has been first-rate, but what fleet operators – bus or van – will need to see next is tangible proof that this new concept is not just a promise or marketing. Especially in the bus industry. Bus passengers might want to be sold on the concept of a journey experience, but operators will only buy in if that is offered on top of what they already have from existing suppliers. The images released so far are intriguing, and construction methods novel, but beyond the technical side, does Arrival really understand the market it is entering? Images revealed so far suggest a bus with expensive deep windscreens, very vulnerable to minor front end impacts, and wide yet inevitably slow single leaf doors.
If it is to succeed, Arrival needs to make sure it sets off on the right foot and does not alienate operators by changing tried and tested features for the sake of change, whilst focussing on rolling out innovations which will give the much sought-after price reduction in the electric vehicle market. It needs a vehicle which is not only a new experience, but which is not daunting to operators, and more importantly drivers. It will be interesting too, in due course, to see whether Arrival’s new electric van will form the basis of either a home-spun minibus, or be taken up as a platform by any of the many minibus conversion specialists. We here at CBW look forward to seeing the potentially ground-breaking Gamma Zero bus when it hits the roads in the not-too-distant future, and await with interest the outcome of the trials with First.
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