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Amazon Orders 100,000 Rivian Electric Vans With Delivery Starting By 2021

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Rivian is a startup making electric SUVs and electric trucks. Amazon has ordered100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian.

Rivian said it will design, build and service a new electric van exclusively for Amazon. These will be dedicated electric delivery van for Amazon. Amazon plans to purchase 100,000 of these unnamed Rivian electric vans and the electric-car startup plans for the first to hit the road by 2021.

Amazon plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030 – saving 4 million metric tons of carbon per year by 2030.

Amazon is now pledging to reach 80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% renewable energy by 2030 on its path to net zero carbon by 2040. Major investments in renewable energy are a critical step to address its carbon footprint globally. To date, Amazon has launched 15 utility-scale wind and solar renewable energy projects that will generate over 1,300 MW of renewable capacity and deliver more than 3.8 million MWh of clean energy annually – enough to power 368,000 U.S. homes. Amazon has also installed more than 50 solar rooftops on fulfillment centers and sort centers around the globe that generate 98 MW of renewable capacity and deliver 130,000 MWh of clean energy annually.

Investing $100 million in Reforestation

Amazon is launching the Right Now Climate Fund, committing $100 million to restore and protect forests, wetlands, and peatlands around the world in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The Right Now Climate Fund will help remove millions of metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere over the lifetime of the project, and create economic opportunity for thousands of people.

Rivian and Amazon

Rivian and Amazon forged a close relationship earlier this year after the retail and tech giant led a $700 million round of investments into the electric-car startup. Ford also invested in the startup automaker this year and plans to use its skateboard electric-vehicle architecture to build an EV.

Rivian’s first vehicles, the R1T (electric pickup truck) and R1S (electric SUV), will see first deliveries occur by the end of 2020.

SOURCES- Rivian, Amazon, Twitter
Written By A. Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

37 thoughts on “Amazon Orders 100,000 Rivian Electric Vans With Delivery Starting By 2021”

  1. how will this work seeing how we are about enter the tribulation. Oh and over 2 billion people who took the vaccine will be dead in less than 3 years.

  2. The vehicle I’ve just finished assembling in the room where I’m currently eating breakfast has a ground shaking 32 kW/tonne. And that’s only because it weighs a mere 7 kg. Well, peak power is probably 3 times that, but I get tired.

    Still, I’m faster on it to work than driving my car.

  3. Does Rivian have a local distributor network?
    If not, will they be subject to the same discrimination that Tesla faces from car dealers and manufacturers?

  4. Well, if this happens I WIll be happy but dead wrong.

    it was my opinion that rivian was a think only and that if their tech proved worth developing, Ford would buy them.
    hope I’m wrong

  5. You’d get along with my wife. She likes the Cobra replicas with all modern internals. Used to ride motorcycles. My personal self-imposed limit is 250 hp per ton. More than that gets me in trouble. You both think 500hp+ per ton is fine. ‍♂️

    https://www.backdraftracing.com/

  6. If I win the lottery I’m getting

    • Luxury sporty sedan for the wife. Think BMW M5 to replace her current 530.
    • Some sort of large bed ute type thing. Given that there aren’t any car based utes in production any more, that means probably a pickup.
    • Some ridiculous ultra light sports car. Think a Caterham R500 and go silly from there.

    All 3 would be optionally electric if it’s available, with the third being the most difficult to achieve (because Electric cars have many advantages, but light weight isn’t one of them)

    There would also be a selection of bikes. Given that I’ve already got 3 road bikes and 3.2 off-road bikes I can’t predict how many I’d end up with with less constraints.

  7. Ah got it. So you’re just pining away for something like an electric version of that Holden El Camino looking thing but with a slightly extended bed.

  8. Oh there are half a dozen ways to get a suitable vehicle, indeed I have one now (overlooking certain brake related issues I need to address).

    I’m just stating my requirements, not lamenting that I’m unable to meet them.

  10. Running with the gate open requires lots of effort to tie everything in place so it doesn’t fall out. And indeed that it is obvious to any police inspection that nothing can fall out.

    If the bed is long enough you can often just put stuff in and close the tonneau cover.

    Also, it is a not 100% clear that it is legal to drive with the gate open as this makes it very difficult to see the licence plate. A cop in a bad mood could probably ticket me for it.

    I’ve certain done it, especially for very large objects where it all needs to be tied in place anyway because the load extends way above the sides of the bed, or indeed the roof of the cab.

    Note that I have unusual requirements, because my wife has a fish tank retail business. And an art installation retail business. Both cases require me to sometimes move around objects that are long, and flat. For example one of the standard products is 1800 mm long, 650 mm high and 113 mm wide. That lies down and fits very neatly in the bed of my current vehicle, but not in the next generation of the same model.

    99% of the time she is moving things using official business methods. Delivery vehicles and so forth. But it’s amazing how often the ability to just do something yourself in an hour saves a day or three of mucking around waiting for the “normal” system to get it’s act together.

  11. Perhaps Bezos, like Musk, understands that our collective future depends on shifting the paradigm. Lead and others will follow.

  13. Plans to have… Might happen, might not. This is nothing but corporate fluffing. Can’t even call it advertising, as they have NOTHING to sell. Just grand plans. Next!

  14. Virtue signalling is pretty much standard practice for retail businesses.

    The names they use for it is “public relations” and “advertising” but whatever you call it, convincing your customers that you are good and virtuous is a legitimate business requirement.

    And I would not be surprised if Amazon decided that, given the makeup of their customer base, being “zero carbon” would be a big plus.

    It could also, conceivably, be used as a bargaining chip in disputes within political localities (New York, California, Germany…) when it comes to arguments about rules and regulations.

    Plus, of course, there is the beliefs of the (senior) staff and owners to consider as well.

  17. BEV is not a 100% solution until batteries get 2x or 3x better, but it’s a great start for 90%. More announcements will be needed to explain how Amazon gets to zero carbon, with air transport being a hard problem.

  18. Rivian is still privately owned. The mitsubishi plant Rivian purchased has massive potential. Rivian is a very serious EV contender with very talented people working there, and I would buy stock if available.

  21. Ute an Aussie word. How cute. I lived over there for 2.5 years. Have an Aussie wife. I can spot an Aussie anywhere. Unless you are a Kiwi. I can tell that easy enough in person, but you write similar.

  23. I’m just speculating here, but I would guess that:

    1. “Exclusive” is just another word for “we will be absolutely flat out trying to meet Amazon’s volumes, we have no resources to make any more”
    2. “Exclusive” is referring to the body panels, grills, badge and maybe cabin interior. 95-98% of the cost of developing an electric van is in the chassis, suspension, motor, battery packs, controllers, software, driveline and other mechanical details, all of which fit within a flat floor layout. The “exclusive” panels form a hollow shell that sits on top of all of that. If and when they get spare capacity, a new shell can be designed and dropped on top of the same flat chassis and then sold to new customers. It’ll look completely different so Amazon is happy. (Remember Amazon is part owner, so getting part of the profit from these new sales… and probably doing the retail themselves anyway.)

  24. Because Bezos wants to compete with Elon Musk on Electric Autonomous vehicles and investing in and placing this order with Rivian is a way to start.
    They only expect 10k or in 2022 and the rest over the next 8 years. Gradation Ferociter. He thinks Rivian is a good bet.

  25. The only bit I don’t like is the “exclusively” bit. If it is a good electric delivery van, it would be nice if they could sell them to other companies as well…flower delivery, news paper delivery…even if they did not sell to direct competitors. They probably would make decent small buses, plumber vans, electrician vans, cable TV vans, heating & A/C vans, window washer vans, ice cream trucks, sandwich trucks, catering vans, animal control, roadside assistance vans, pool maintenance vans, carpet cleaning vans, and more, as well.

    They probably don’t even need large batteries as they probably typically go less than 200 miles a day.

    Of course, that means another company could make these other vans.

  26. I would be very surprised if even Toyota didn’t care about a multi-billion dollar advanced order for 100k vehicles.

    But they may not care enough to completely custom design the vehicle for you. Whereas yes, Rivian would be happy (overjoyed) to give you a bespoke product.

  27. Amazon owns a good sized chunk of Rivian, hundreds of millions of dollars worth. So this order is more like a way of jump-starting a partial subsidiary than anything else. Ford also recently invested half a billion into Rivian; so that gives Rivian access to the talent pool from a major auto maker.

  28. That $700M is a dodgy and rubbery number. I had a bit of a look around and some reports say Amazon put in $700m, while other reports say that there was a round of investing, in which Amazon was the “lead”, with a total of $700m. The reports that give the second story seem to be from sources (eg. Bloomberg) that are more likely to know about financial dealings.

    In the second story, Amazon’s actual investment is carefully never mentioned.

  29. Apparently one of the major contract delivery suppliers has announced that a “major customer” has cancelled a US$600M contract.

    Draw your own conclusions.

  30. See, I was thinking that it’s too big for me.

    I want a ute (pickup for you foreigners) with a 2m load bed, and that’s it. More room and capacity, while nice, doesn’t make up for more difficult parking, less ease in negotiating traffic and tight corners, let alone needing to renovate my house to get a bigger garage.

  31. First of all, having actually raised over a billion dollars in funding makes this much more of a unicorn than a mere startup.

    Secondly, while I have not (in a minute’s search) been able to find what Amazon’s actual stake in the company is, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. So it’s closer to reality to think of this as a newly set up near-subsidary than a random startup they found on the internet one day.

  32. Ok, guys, I am going to need an RV a little bit bigger than this when I retire. You get busy building it and I will get busy saving for it. I want the optional solar roof and off road 12 wheel independent suspension drive train. I’ll add the active camouflage tiles myself.

  33. Because he doesn’t want to give it to Elon musk? None of the other big guys (Toyota etc) that have viable electric solutions could give a shit about 100k cars. But for rivian it might just keep them a float if they can deliver.

  34. Is Amazon’s delivery situation in the US so bad that they need to build out their own fleet, rather than continue using Uber style contractors using their own personal vehicles? Committing to a ground fleet is serious business.

  35. Why in the hell would the worlds 2nd largest retailer give this big of an order to a company that has yet to produce an actual vehicle you can buy? Much less a commercial type vehicle that would be completely contrary to what they have planned now? They have been working on the R1T for years and its still not expected till 2021. Who believes they can design and produce a new truck from scratch and still get it out the door in 2021? Is this some kind of new Pump and Dump stock manipulation?

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