Amazon’s 10,000 Rivian-made all-electric van are delivering packages throughout the United States, the e-commerce company revealed Tuesday evening during its Delivering the Future event.
Amazon, which owns a stake in Rivian, reached a deal with the automaker in 2019 to have at least 100,000 electric delivery vans on the road by 2030. The order is part of Amazon’s climate pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Amazon began rolling out its electric delivery vans in summer 2022. The majority of the electric delivery vans are in the U.S., split across 1,800 or so cities. Amazon started bringing the electric delivery vans to Europe this summer and recently announced plans to deploy more than 300 vans in Germany.
The custom electric delivery van is one of three vehicles that Rivian is developing or producing. Its other two vehicles, the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, are consumer EVs. Rivian said earlier this month it expects to produce 52,000 vehicles — a group that includes the vans — by the end of the year.
The vehicles, which are assembled at Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois, share some of the same design features found in today’s gas-powered versions. The new EV vans have a few more rounded edges, giving them an overall sleeker appearance. The real difference is in the electric architecture and the custom features that have been integrated into the vans, including highway driving and traffic assist features, exterior cameras that can provide a 360-degree view for the driver via a digital display, and surround taillights for better braking visibility.
As part of Amazon’s climate pledge, the company has also launched a $2 billion climate fund to invest in startups that fit into its net-zero vision. Rivian as well as Redwood Materials, CarbonCure Technologies, Pachama and Turntide Technologies are few of the companies that Amazon has invested in through the climate fund.
Source @TechCrunch
