E-commerce giant Amazon’s electric delivery vans (EDVs), built by EV startup Rivian, have made over 5 million deliveries in the US since it was rolled out in July this year, with a fleet size of more than 1,000 units.

Although only a small part of the retail company’s total transportation fleet, comprising 30,000 branded delivery vehicles and 20,000 branded trailers, its zero-tailpipe emission vehicle portion is showing consistent growth as Rivian expects to deliver 100,000 EDVs to Amazon.

The EDVs were first introduced in Seattle, San Diego, Nashville, Dallas, Chicago, and Baltimore, and have since been launched in Salt Lake City, Provo, Portland, Pittsburgh, Oakland, New York, Newark, Madison, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Houston, Denver, Boston, and Austin.

The vans are being used extensively by Amazon, and Rivian is also increasing its manufacturing pace.

Rivian said that it had built a total of 7,363 EDVs, R1S SUVs, and R1T pickup trucks in the August-September quarter, and that in the same period, it also delivered 6,584 vehicles.

However, there have been hurdles in the progress of Amazon and Stymie’s goals of achieving an electric delivery vehicle fleet, like inflation and supply chain disruptions.

In 2019, then-CEO Jeff Bezos announced the deal with Rivian for buying 100,000 vans, which he said would be on road by 2024. Now the group predicts that it will reach that goal by 2030.

Udit Mada, Vice President of Amazon Transportation, said that although the company was always excited for the Christmas holiday season, this year was ‘unique’ as it would be the first time that deliveries would be made to customers across the US with the new zero-emission vans.

He said that the company had already delivered more than 5 million orders with its EDVs built by Rivian and added that this was just beginning as the figure would rise exponentially while Amazon progresses towards achieving its 100,000-vehicle goal.

Source credit: https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23443995/amazon-rivian-electric-delivery-van-fleet-ev