After purchasing 100,000 electric vans from Rivian, Amazon has begun testing them on Los Angeles delivery routes. The goal is to confirm the performance, safety and durability of the vans before rolling them out to as many as 16 cities in 2021.
Amazon teamed up with Rivian on the vehicles and used its customizable ‘skateboard’ frame construction to create a ‘first-of-its-kind all-electric van,’ Amazon said. “From what we’ve seen, this is one of the fastest modern commercial electrification programs, and we’re incredibly proud of it,” said Ross Rachey, Amazon’s global fleet and product director.
The electric van (which needs a name tbh) has a sleek, cute design thanks to its smooth corners and round, low-mounted headlights. The model currently being tested has a range of 150 miles, although Amazon and Rivian will build different powertrain and battery configurations for regions depending on factors such as terrain and weather. The vehicle is equipped with 360-degree cameras for safety, a huge light bar for better visibility, and a vehicle guidance system with, yes, Alexa voice control.
Rivian and Amazon are still fine-tuning the vehicles before entering full production by the end of 2021, but Amazon has already installed ‘thousands’ of charging stations at its delivery hubs in North America and Europe. It plans to have 10,000 of the vehicles on the road by 2022, before eventually driving the entire fleet of 100,000 people. In addition to being a customer, Amazon is one of the owners of Rivian, which led a $ 700 million round of investment in early 2019.