10 Arrival battery-electric buses in various states of completion formed part of an auction of vehicles, equipment and sundries from the failed manufacturer. Some of those buses had attracted no bids as the deadline approached despite the minimum being set at just £500.
Bidding closed on 27 June, although a two-week clearance period for any unsold lots will be held from 1 July. All are in Banbury. The auctioneer has chosen not to publish results of the bidding round. Buses were all listed as development prototypes and sat alongside several Arrival battery-electric vans and numerous sundry items in the disposal process.
Of the buses, one is in left-hand drive layout while another is a shortened model with no wheels that was used by Arrival as office space. While most appear to be 12m examples, a second shorter example (with wheels attached) was listed.
The office space bus had attracted bids to £540 shortly before the auction closed although its eventual sale price is unknown. Of the nine others, one had received a bid of £500 while the others had gained no bids with around an hour to go.
An earlier auction of Arrival assets that concluded in March included items such as robots and associated equipment, with clearance of unsold items from that round running until 5 April.
A notice of administrator’s proposals for Arrival Automotive UK Ltd dated 28 March states that parent Arrival Group had invested over US$1.5 billion in research and development before its UK subsidiaries entered administration on 5 February after a long period of difficulty.
In August 2022, the manufacturer spoke of its modular approach to build allowing it to offer lengths of up to 13.5m for the bus product, although it is thought that none at that size were assembled.
One of the development vehicles was used on-road by that time after certification was achieved, but even then, the future for Arrival looked tricky. At one point, the manufacturer was in the frame to supply 44 examples of its revolutionary bus to First York, while the City of Anaheim in California was also to buy the type for its Anaheim Transportation Network.
Investment in the bus product was suspended in 2022 pending the sourcing of additional capital, with Arrival then expecting to operate in a downscaled manner from that point until 2023.
A senior figure noted concurrently that the bus was being left in a position where it could be easily revisited – but ultimately, the extensive development fleet looks to have ended up as little more than a collection of £500 ornaments.
