This EV startup, once valued at $13b, is on the verge of total collapse

Once an EV darling thought to revolutionize EV production with its concept of micro-factories that crank out delivery vans for the likes of Uber and UPS, UK startup Arrival is in a desperate search for funding after being delisted from Nasdaq this week.

Nasdaq suspended trading of Arrival shares this week, followed by a formal delisting, Reuters reports. The action is the result of Arrival being late in posting financial results and failing to file a remediation plan and hold an annual shareholder meeting.

After announcing it was slashing its workforce by 50% last year, Arrival said it had received a lifeline two months ago in the form of a $50 million investment. At the time of the delisting yesterday, the company was reported to be worth $20 million.

According to Reuters, the company is talking to Ernst and Young accounting to handle next steps (i.e., bankruptcy filing) if it can’t secure emergency funding.

Electrek’s Scooter Doll has chronicled the company’s many woes since going public in 2021 with a SPAC. Originally its shares were backed by Hyundai, Kia, and UPS, with the company built on the promise of more efficient EV production thanks to micro-factories churning out buses and delivery vans for Uber and UPS.

After going public, Arrival struggled to keep its business afloat, burning through mountains of cash and going through multiple rounds of layoffs and swapping out CEOs. In a bid for more money, it even tried to merge with another SPAC last year.

Back in late 2022, the company triggered a noncompliance letter from Nasdaq for dipping below $1 per share for months, but the company managed to pull through that slump without getting delisted.

Last year, Arrival had made a deal with Kensington Capital Acquisition that could have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, but that deal collapsed, Reuters reports.

Electrek’s Take

Arrival’s shares dropped nearly 95% this year, so it’s the desperate end of days for the startup, with few options to salvage the situation. While the company had targeted this year as the date for starting production of its delivery van in Charlotte, North Carolina, only a miracle will make that a reality now. To date, Arrival hasn’t delivered a fully working production-level EV to any of its prospective customers, reports TechCrunch.

It’s not easy out there for EV startups – especially SPAC EV companies in that money is hard to come by. Lordstown Motors and Proterra have gone belly up. California’s Faraday Future, which has just relaunched delivery of its luxury $309,000 electric car, recently received a stern warning from NASDAQ due to plummeting share price. It has more time to turn it around, but EV investors are likely looking for other opportunities out there.

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