United Parcel Services (UPS), a renowned American parcel delivery and supply chain management firm, reportedly announced that it has ordered new 10,000 electric vans from electric vehicle startup Arrival. UPS also revealed its new investment in Arrival. Previously in January, Arrival secured a new funding of over $100 million from Hyundai and now, the company is quickly following that funding up with this novel UPS investment. The packaging company seemed to have liked its original partnership with Arrival as it further announced the acquisition of a minority Arrival stake as well as the placing of the new order with the EV startup. Arrival and UPS plan to operate together in order to make EVs with ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems). Along with technology increasing operating efficiencies and safety, the packaging company is also looking at the capability of automated movements by these electric vehicles at UPS depots. On that note, the carrier plans to initiate the testing of ADAS features later in 2020. In the future, vehicle purchases by UPS from Arrival would rely on successful tests. If the tests are successful, more 10,000 electric vehicles would be purchased later in the decade. Additionally, UPS now has the choice to fast-track future orders since the company is one of the investors of Arrival. The EV startup has its three small manufacturing facilities located in the UK while one facility is in New Jersey in the U.S. Apart from UPS, Amazon and FedEx have also been looking to add EVs to their respective fleets as the competition for last-mile delivery is growing in urban centers. Amazon aims to add about 100,000 Rivian battery-electric vans in 2021. Moreover, Ryder Systems and FedEx also collaborated a year ago to add Chanje electric vehicles to the California fleet of FedEx. Neither of the company has revealed any financial terms regarding the investment made or price of electric vans yet. Source credit: https://electrek.co/2020/01/30/ups-orders-10000-electric-delivery-vans-arrival/