Amazon customers will now receive orders delivered via electric vehicles from manufacturer Rivian in cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis.
The ecommerce giant hopes to have thousands of vans in more than 100 cities by the end of the year and 100,000 across the entire US by 2030.
Rivian’s partnership with Amazon was announced in 2019 when Amazon co-founded and became the first signatory of The Climate Pledge.
“Fighting the effects of climate change requires constant innovation and action, and Amazon is partnering with companies who share our passion for inventing new ways to minimize our impact on the environment,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
“Rivian has been an excellent partner in that mission, and we’re excited to see our first custom electric delivery vehicles on the road.”
“Today marks a significant milestone in our Climate Pledge commitment. Rivian was one of the first companies Amazon invested in through the Climate Pledge Fund, and we’re just getting started on our journey to have 100,000 of Rivian’s vehicles on the road by 2030.”
“And, besides being sustainable, these new vehicles are also great for drivers. They were designed with driver input and feedback along the way, and they’re among the safest and most comfortable delivery vehicles on the road today.”
The company has been trialing deliveries with Rivian preproduction vehicles since 2021, delivering over 430,000 packages over 90,000+ miles.
Rivian’s delivery trucks are manufactured in the company’s facility in Illinois and include safety features such as sensor detection, highway and traffic assist technology, a large windshield to enhance driver visibility, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and collision warnings.
They also include embedded technology that fully integrates the delivery workflow with the vehicle, enabling seamless access to routing, navigation, driver support and more.
Amazon says that it has added thousands of charging stations at its delivery stations across the US and will continue to invest in building an infrastructure to support a more sustainable delivery fleet.
