Rivian has announced that it will begin deliveries for its EV vans to Amazon this month, providing a new way for both companies to become more profitable.
The electric delivery van, or EDV, will provide up to 201 miles (323 kilometers) of all-electric range per charge for Amazon.
It demonstrates Rivian’s ability to sell and fulfill large corporate fleet orders. Amazon has ordered 100,000 vans and has an exclusive agreement with Rivian for the next four years. The initial agreement called for the order to be completed by 2030, but clearly, Rivian seems ahead of schedule.
In fact, they’re so far ahead that they’ve outperformed every other EV van on the market. General Motors’ Brightdrop EV van will begin deliveries later this month. The Ford E-Transit will not be available for purchase for several months. All EDVs were produced at the brand’s Normal, IL manufacturing facility. We anticipate that some vans will be produced in the future by the newly announced Georgia factory.
The vans are also referred to as the EDV700 because of their 700 cubic feet (19.9 mc) of storage space. That’s more than enough, as is the range of each van, to handle the daily load that the majority of Amazon drivers face. Rivian anticipates that a smaller EDV500, based on the same general architecture as the 700, will be available sometime next year.
Both vans will be linked to a FleetOS system, which will allow Amazon to manage its fleet remotely.
