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What Do You Think of These Design Decisions on Arrival's Electric Delivery Van?

By Rain Noe - March 5, 2021

in Cars

Yesterday Arrival, the British electric vehicle startup, released new images of their forthcoming delivery van. It's got a couple of design elements that strike me as strange, see what jumps out at you:

Why do you reckon they went with the pocket behind the door on the left side...

but not the right side?

Perhaps the right side door is conventionally hinged? I assumed the groove behind the right side door was a track for it to slide rearwards on, but perhaps that's just a styling element.

Also, the strange way that the wheel well intersects with the door opening makes it look as if ingress/egress might be awkward:

Your thoughts?

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Dee An

4 years ago

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Why the asymmetric doors? Well, study the van for other asymmetries: 1, steering wheel is on right, no front passenger seat on left, internal access on left between cab and cargo section.
Use case? Driver arrives at destination, gets up from seat and fetches parcel from rear of van, driver leaves vehicle on the nearside of the vehicle with parcel.
Advantages: driver doesn't have to exit vehicle on right and step into motor traffic. The left hand door slides open, causing minimal hazard to pedestrians and cyclists. The left-hand door can remain open when the van is parked without blocking the pavement ('sidewalk').

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Anders H

4 years ago

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What confuses me most is the bumpers at the front and the back. Having worked as a delivery driver for a bit as I went to design school, I have to say bumpers that actually protect the rest of the car and are sacrificial compared to the metal bodywork important (or maybe I was just a bad driver?!) The painted front side body panels, where there appears to be parking sensors, will take quite some beating, while the black front (I'm guessing unpainted plastic) will only protect in some situations. A feeling of that style trumped function that also can be seen at the rear where the bumper (plastic?) appears to be painted, which is a really bad idea for such a workhorse of a vehicle. Other than that, I really like the concept and the design.

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- Dee An
  
  Anders H
  
  4 years ago
  
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  The body panels on this van are made of a polymer or composite material, not metal. Genuine question: are composite panels necessarily much more expensive to make (or replace, or repair) than a traditional black plastic bumper (at this size of production run)?
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  - Anders H
    
    Dee An
    
    4 years ago
    
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    Ah, that makes a difference, but I'm guessing they're still painted, so they will scratch easily? Maybe they should have looked at unpainted body panels in PP as on the new Gogoro Viva scooters?
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Dee An

4 years ago

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The driver-side (right hand side) door is conventionally hinged - you can see the hinges in the photos.
The groove behind the driver-side door is so that parts (such as the roof and side panels) can be reused in a Left-hand drive version of the van.

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Dee An

4 years ago

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I've been delivering to people's homes recently in an older VW van - steering wheel on right, rear sliding door on left of van. This means every* delivery results in me walking half way around the van.
Of course I appreciate that having the rear sliding door on the pavement (sidewalk) side of the van makes tasks safer in many situations.
*Actually, the van has half height bulkhead, so sometimes I can remove the delivery item from the rear of the van from the cab. But this requires twisting in my seat whilst lifting a heavy item - not recommended.

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Michael DiTullo

4 years ago

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a heck of a lot nicer than the new USPS van... what is the name of that thing? The De Joy?

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Peter Elliot

4 years ago

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The pocket on the left and not right is due to the UK right hand drive. It allows it to operate with the passenger door open all the time for easier driver exiting for deliveries, but maintains the safety on the driver side.

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