If you order something off Amazon in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, San Diego, and Seattle, then chances are your package may reach your house delivered by a Rivian electric delivery van. Amazon just announced these battery powered haulers are now delivering packages currently only in the cities mentioned above, but the plan is to have them on the road in 100 cities by the end of the year.
The first delivery vans from Rivian joined the fleet in late summer 2021, but now the fleet has grown significantly.
We don’t know how many Rivian vans are currently in operation - around 2,000 had been built in January of this year, but it’s probably closer to a few hundred on the road today. Amazon says it wants to have 100,000 of them in its delivery fleet by the end of the decade. Rivian will really have to do a great job ramping up its production in order to deliver that many vehicles, but the manufacturer seems confident. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said
Today represents an important step, not just for Amazon and Rivian as partners, but also for transportation and the environment.
In 2019, Rivian and Amazon committed to fast-tracking a new type of delivery vehicle that would result in a significant reduction of carbon emissions.
To say this is an exciting moment is an understatement—we’re thrilled to see this partnership has kickstarted decarbonization projects across the logistics delivery industry.
Gallery: Amazon Electric Delivery Vehicle (Rivian Van)
The same kind of optimism was mirrored by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy who acknowledged the importance of moving to a fleet of electric vehicles that help reduce the company’s carbon emissions. He concluded his statement by saying
To say this is an exciting moment is an understatement—we’re thrilled to see this partnership has kickstarted decarbonization projects across the logistics delivery industry.
Amazon placed its order for 100,000 Rivian vans almost three years ago and it owns around 18 percent of the EV startup. It’s still not clear if Rivian will be able to meet the 2030 delivery deadline, though, and Amazon has signed deals with other manufacturers like Stellantis although for a much lower number of electric delivery vehicles.
The challenges Rivian has faced in trying to ramp up production of the electric delivery van are documented and they lead to the company halving its production forecast for the year back in March, from 50,000 to 25,000 units (this also includes the R1T and R1S). They have not reiterated that number since and could be on track to achieve it after announcing they had built over 4,000 vehicles in the second quarter of 2022.
