Arrival, the owner of the autonomous racing car project Roborace, has written off the value of the company in its latest accounts, after judging it would never make money.
UK electric vehicle start-up Arrival took a $20.7 million (£16.7m) impairment charge in 2021 on its ownership of Roborace as well as on charging stations and other leases “that are no longer expected to generate future cash flows”, the company said in a filing published on April 27. Impairment in accounting usually means a permanent reduction in value.
The Roborace automonous racecar was revealed by Arrival CEO Denis Sverdlov at the 2017 Mobile World Congress along with plans to build 20 to create a race series that would be held ahead of Formula E events on the same circuits.
Following a head-to-head display with two cars at the 2018 German e-Prix in Berlin, Roborace ran a low-key ‘Season Beta’ in 2020 with seven so-called DevBot cars that could be run autonomously or with a driver.
