by Arrival’s Test and Validation team
The road to start of production is paved with milestone achievements.
Recently, we hit one such milestone when the Arrival Bus achieved EU certification and received European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWTVA).
Type Approval is a series of tests and inspections which confirm that production samples of a vehicle will meet specified performance standards. It means that we can reliably build and therefore sell our vehicles, which is critical for our customers.
While most commercial vehicles receive a multi-step approval which combines approval of components and systems individually, we chose full European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWTVA). Compared to a national, small services or individual vehicle approval, EUWTVA certified our entire working vehicle for the whole European market. This all-encompassing type approval gives us the potential for scalability — with a clear route to mass production across all of Europe.
With production starting closer to home in the UK, we’re delighted to see our vehicles achieve this critical approval ahead of UK public road trials with our customers beginning.
Type Approval, defined
To receive Type Approval, the Bus had to achieve both Conformity of Production (CoP) as well as certification.
- Conformity of Production (CoP) is an assessment that verifies Arrival’s ability to produce a series of products that match the specification, performance and marking requirements set out for type approval. Conformity of Production was validated at the start of our certification programme in mid-February 2022.
- Certification is a third-party validation and verification process, which demonstrates that our products and systems conform to the standards laid out by the approval authorities’ Certification Framework. This work, as well as the CoP certification, occurred in a very fast and efficient way with dynamics testing running from mid-January to April at Applus+ Idiada in Spain.
Rethinking operational efficiency
Arrival’s certification programme was developed specifically to be as efficient and effective as possible to serve the timelines of the business. Testing and inspections were split across multiple vehicle assets both in the UK and near Barcelona, Spain. While further afield, our time in Spain was a direct reflection of our cooperation with Applus+ Idiada. Their knowledge, ideal working conditions and facilities, along with the creation of a joint team fully devoted to the project, enabled us to deliver a record-breaking certification process. In Applus+ Idiada’s 30+ years of experience with thousands of completed approvals, the speed and thoroughness with which the Arrival Bus completed the process was a huge achievement for everyone involved, helping to set new benchmarks for operational efficiency.
Josep Mata, Homologation Director at Applus+ Idiada, stated that
“We are delighted to have conducted the Bus homologation program for Arrival and to have experienced the Arrival high performance team’s efforts to get it done within such a challenging calendar. Applus+ Idiada’s international presence in UK and Spain, our comprehensive testing facilities and our customer focus have also been key to make it happen. This fruitful experience sets up the basis for expanding our future cooperation.”
In addition to our cooperation with Applus+ Idiada, our vehicle certification programme was largely improved by our design philosophy and the emphasis we place on simulation and analysis.
At Arrival, our in-house Rapid Engineering Design, Central Analysis Team (RED-CAT) teams employ simulation and analysis to aid in rapid development and optimisation of vehicles, from concept through to launch. We place RED-CAT analysis at the core of vehicle decision-making, which allows us to troubleshoot and validate performance requirements ahead of physical validation.
What’s next for the Arrival Bus
Many teams across the business were instrumental in the success of securing the Bus’s type approval. It was a true testament to the Arrival culture, which values collaboration and blank-sheet thinking no matter what the challenge.
What’s next for the Arrival Bus? Type approval is just one stop on the journey to getting our buses on the road.
From driver and rider experiences to durability assessments, the Bus will now undergo a period of additional testing and accumulate even more mileage as we verify all of the ground-breaking features of the Arrival Bus. We’re going above and beyond the certification testing we’ve done so far to be fully prepared for customer trials, while continuing to balance our operational efficiency and the speed of our vehicle programmes.
Because Arrival’s technologies and components are shared across all vehicle types, the learnings from the Bus certification programme contribute to all vehicle programmes. Therefore, the same certification programme is currently being run on the Arrival Van. With all of its testing complete, the Arrival Van is well on its way to achieving its very own certification milestone on the road to start of production.
For more information on Arrival, visit our website.
