Uber needs its drivers worldwide to make the swap to electrical autos and has set targets of 2025 for the town of London and 2030 for Europe and North America.

However relatively than have its drivers solely depend on established automakers to supply their vehicles, Uber has partnered with British EV startup Arrival to develop a devoted automobile for ride-hailing fleets.

The automobile is solely generally known as the Arrival Automobile, and it is slated for launch within the second half of 2023. Uber needs the automobile to be reasonably priced and is inviting its drivers to become involved with the design course of.

A teaser shot launched by Arrival on Tuesday hints at a pod-like automobile with seating for 5. The ultimate design for the Arrival Automobile will probably be revealed earlier than 2021 is out.

This is not the primary time an EV startup has been tapped to develop a devoted car for a enterprise. America’s Rivian has developed an electric van specifically for Amazon deliveries.

Arrival is especially suited to the duty as the corporate is concentrated on industrial autos. It is beforehand unveiled a supply van and bus. The place the corporate plans to face out is thru a lean manufacturing course of, known as the microfactory. Principally, a sequence of robots taking on an space spanning simply 4,000 sq. ft assembles entire autos utilizing modular, pre-assembled parts moved into place on autonomous sleds.

Arrival has beforehand introduced plans to construct microfactories at areas in North and South Carolina, in addition to in Bicester, United Kingdom.

Though Arrival hasn’t delivered any autos but, the corporate is already publicly traded on the Nasdaq beneath ticker image ARVL. It went public in March through a SPAC cope with CIIG Merger Corp, elevating roughly $660 million within the course of.