A core memory I have growing up in North Jersey that seems to have disappeared and gone away is the arrival of the ice cream truck.
These days, they are parked like any other food truck next to a very busy park or in the middle of a city center in a place with a lot of foot traffic. However, I remember when I was very young, they would roam around and bring out the kids in the neighborhood, who would flag them down to get themselves a sweet treat.
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A sign that I knew that summer was coming or in full swing was hearing the loud chimes of the ice cream truck from several streets away, a noise that seemed to have faded away with time.
But if you have ever seen an ice cream truck, you would know they are built from various vehicles, including multi-stop delivery vans to smaller vehicles like disused small-capacity school buses and conversion vans.
No matter the type of vehicle, these ice cream trucks are almost always gas-powered. However, Rivian RIVN and Ben & Jerry's UL are working to change that.
Rivian and Ben & Jerry's unveil ice cream truck of the future.
Ben & Jerry's/Rivian
Ben & Jerry taps Rivian for next-gen EV ice cream vans
The electric vehicle maker has been hard at work creating Ben & Jerry's ice cream van of the future. Based on the Rivian Commercial Van, these new rides are modified to fit the ice cream maker's needs. They include a colorful livery in the style of a Ben & Jerry’s pint and an additional air conditioning unit on the roof.
The Vermont-based pint specialists' new rides will premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, this week. According to Rivian, the sweet new rides are meant to provide Ben & Jerry's with a reliable and powerful solution for its needs and "the added benefit of a reduced environmental footprint."
"Collaborating with the Ben & Jerry's team to build the next generation of electric scoop trucks has been an incredible experience. It's one of those projects that just makes the team smile," Rivian Prototype Development Senior Director Brian Gase said in a statement.
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Rivian and Ben & Jerry's did not disclose how many of these new "scoop trucks" were ordered, but they did mention that 2 examples will be on the road after SXSW, in what they say is "bringing good eats and good vibes to the Rivian community across the country" and also appearing at events in Ben & Jerry's home state of Vermont.
In a statement, Rivian said the custom Ben & Jerry's vans "will allow for more events, more catering gigs, and dishing out more ice cream than ever" with up to 161 miles of range.
"Working with Rivian, an industry leader that is committed to sustainability, is an ice cream dream come true," Ben & Jerry's US Integrated Marketing project lead Sean Slattery said in a statement. "Today, Rivian helped Ben & Jerry's reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in a small way while making things a little bit cooler... which, as an ice cream company, is extremely difficult to do."
Related: Rivian's $80K electric van is up against intense competiton
Rivian is growing its commercial footprint
Rivian's collaboration with Ben & Jerry's is its latest high-profile commercial business client. Last month, it announced that it was opening up sales of its electric delivery vans to business fleets of all sizes in the United States, entering a commercial vehicle segment with stiff competition.
Previously, the Tesla rival was under an exclusivity deal with Amazon AMZN, where under a $1 billion investment, the e-commerce giant agreed to buy 100,000 vans by 2030.
Now that Rivian is free to sell its electric commercial van to other companies, it has been garnering interest from other large clients, including AT&T, in December 2023.
Ben & Jerry's is an independent subsidiary of Unilever plc, which is traded under the ticker UL on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rivian is traded on the NASDAQ as RIVN
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