Hyundai and Kia compete with Rivian and Amazon with electric vans

Get to know the Hyundai PBV concept. The production version will soon be able to drive on public roads.

Hyundai and Kia have announced a €100 million (AU$161.5 million) strategic investment in a €80 million (AU$129.2 million) UK electric vehicle (EV) start-up. the latter contributes €20 million (AU$32.3 million).

Crucially, as part of this new partnership, Hyundai and Kia will unveil a range of dedicated zero-emission vehicles (PBVs) that will keep pace with new electric vehicle specialist Rivian.

Arrival's scalable skateboard electric vehicle platform will underpin these future PBVs, which will primarily be used by logistics and transportation companies. It has a modular structure that includes the battery, electric motors and transmission components.

In particular, Hyundai and Kia are currently working on small and medium-sized vans "at a competitive price" while "other products" covering "multiple vehicle categories and types" and therefore meeting "diverse customer needs" are in the research stage.

From the outset, Hyundai and Kia's new PBVs will be aimed at the European market, which has seen "rapidly growing demand... for environmentally friendly commercial vehicles" due to tighter emissions regulations, but other markets have already been hinted at.

Arrival already has pilot programs with several logistics companies in Europe, all of which use vans with their own architecture.

Hyundai unveiled its PBV concept earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. As for Universal Platforms Arrival, its applications were virtually limitless.

As reported, Amazon invested $700 million (A1b) in Rivian last February and ordered 100,000 zero-emission vans seven months later. Needless to say, now the game has begun.