Would-be EV manufacturer Arrival has notified the local controlling bodies about introducing external management in its British office, essentially proclaiming itself bankrupt after nearly a decade of struggling to put out a single production car, TechCrunch reports.
To get even with the creditors, the startup plans to sell its assets and intellectual property. Among other things, this involves its proprietary EV architecture designs and software developed for upcoming products. A week prior to this announcement, after repeated warnings, the Nasdaq exchange had withdrawn the company’s shares from sale.
The company’s current staff amounts to 400 employees, of which 172 work in the UK. It looks like many of them should start looking for a new job soon. Arrival says its branch offices in other countries will continue operation, but we’d frankly be concerned about their long-term survivability, too: the company has never once turned a profit.
Founded in 2015 as a startup firm specializing in all-electric transports, Arrival has failed to bring even one vehicle to the mass market in its ten years of operation. The company kept coming out with various concepts and prototypes, but had to cut its total staff from 1,600 to 800 employees last year. It also managed to attract U.S. $300,000,000 in investment last spring, but it looks like that may not have been enough.
