Electric vehicle maker scraps its assembly line

Arrival, a small electric vehicle manufacturer backed by UPS, is looking for a new way to build its delivery vans and buses using automated "micro factories," which cost about $50 million compared to more than $1 billion for a traditional factory. “The assembly line approach is very capital-intensive, and you have to get to very high production levels to make any margin,” said Avinash Rugoobur, Arrival’s president. “The microfactory allows us to build vehicles profitably at really any volume.”