Donate an ARRIVAL VAN to the British Motor Museum

We aim to buy an ARRIVAL prototype VAN at the final liquidation auction and donate it to the British Motor Museum.

Why?

It will be the last one ever to survive whole and as close to the intended design as possible, the only evidence of the efforts, creativity and yes, occasionally dramatic mistakes of one of the many electric vehicle startups which flourished during the early 2020s and by their mere presence influenced the larger vehicle manufacturers.

About VAN

VAN was a unique, innovative project which aimed to address global environmental problems in multiple ways. The van has novel recycled plastic composite exterior panels and an unprecedented number of in-house developed components, including an electric drive unit, HV batteries, an ADAS system, an HMI, various ECUs, and many more. Further the VAN has a low step height fully walk-through flat floor design which necessitated various novel technical choices such as a particularly compact drive unit.

About Arrival

Arrival was a technology focussed British start-up company, located partly in Oxfordshire, but with a global presence. It aimed to harness technology to deliver cutting-edge electric passenger and commercial vehicles with a strong focus on tackling climate issues. The company at its peak employed 2700 engineers and technologists but due to strong financial market pressures it failed to bring any vehicles into production, with the company finally falling into receivership in 2024.

Arrival's first large scale production vehicle was planned to be VAN - a full electric light goods vehicle intended to start production in 2024. Various prototype vehicles were produced and design and production readiness was almost complete, but once the company had gone through administration and liquidation only a handful of vehicles survived into 2025.

This donation is to ensure that a physical example of all the effort and investment in Arrival remains preserved, and to stand as a reminder of a British built world-leading product that almost was.

Arrival website: Arrival

About the museum

As former ARRIVAL engineers and team members, we believe VAN deserves preservation as an important part of British automotive history! And we are not alone. The British Motor Museum at Gaydon is also interested and willing to house, look after and occasionally display or make available for viewing one Arrival VAN in perpetuity. This is on the basis of the VAN’s local connections and its place in the recent history of the automotive industry’s transition to electric power. While the museum can take on the long term storage costs, they cannot pay to purchase the vehicle at auction. But we can purchase it and donate it to them.

See the BMM’s great work here: British Motor Museum

About the auction

Unfortunately, ARRIVAL no longer exists as a functioning business.

The external administrators are currently selling ARRIVAL's assets, including several prototype VANs: Arrival UK - Prototype Vehicle Fleet

Bidding ends on 6 of May, and we need to hurry up!

Our plan

We aim to buy one VAN from an auction on the afternoon of May 6th 2025.

The starting bid is £2000.

The invoice total will be 41.6% higher, e.g.:

Hammer £2000

Hammer VAT, 20% £400

Buyer's Premium, 18% £360

VAT on Buyer's Premium, 20% £72

Invoice Total £2832

So we need to raise a minimum of approx £3000.00 before Tuesday morning.

The actual hammer price is unknown, so:

Make your donation now to save a piece of automotive history for future generations!