The electric delivery vans that Amazon developed with Rivian are starting to be rolled out.
Jeff Bezos, then-CEO of Amazon, stood on stage at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to announce that the company had purchased 100,000 electric vehicles from the startup as part of its ambitious push to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
In October 2020, Amazon introduced a version of the van, and then tested it in a number of cities throughout the following year. Amazon says it will use electric vehicles to deliver in a number of cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Tennessee, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and St Louis.
Amazon said it expects to have thousands of Rivian vans in more than 100 cities by the end of this year, the first step towards having 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road in the U.S.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement that fighting the effects of climate change requires constant innovation and action. We are excited to see our first custom electric delivery vehicles on the road, asRivian has been an excellent partner in that mission.
Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said the vehicle deployment is a "milestone" in the effort to decarbonize last-mile delivery.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tour one of the company’s electric delivery vans.Much of Amazon's delivery operation is in-house. As part of that, it increasingly relies on an army of contracted delivery companies to ferry packages to customers' doorsteps, which mostly use dark blue Amazon- branded vans that burn fossil fuels.
Challenges have been faced by the Rivian roll out. According to The Information, Amazon delivery drivers charged with testing the vehicles claimed the vans' battery drained quickly when heating or cooling was on, threatening the vehicle range, and that the battery takes an hour to replenish. The range of the vehicles would be more than enough for many delivery routes.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in May Rivian filed a lawsuit against a supplier of seats for delivery vans that were ordered by Amazon.
Rivian has faced a number of challenges in ramping up production of its electric vehicles. In March, the company reduced its production forecast to just 25,000 vehicles, including Amazon's vans, due to supply chain constraints. Rivian's second quarter results will be reported on August 11.
Amazon has supported Rivian through its Climate Pledge Fund. Thousands of charging stations have been added at Amazon's delivery depots in the US.
Rivian has been tapped by Amazon to increase the number of cars in its fleet. In January, Amazon said it would buy thousands of electric Ram vans from Stellantis, and it had also ordered vans from Daimler's Mercedes-Benz unit for package delivery.
John Rosevear worked for CNBC.
Rivian can produce 25,000 vehicles this year, according to the CEO.
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