Amazon said Thursday it will begin to start using electric vans developed in partnership with Rivian to make deliveries.
Amazon is beginning to roll out some of the electric delivery vans that it developed with Rivian Automotive, the companies announced Thursday.
In September 2019, Amazon founder and then-CEO Jeff Bezos stood on stage at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to announce that the company had purchased 100,000 electric vehicles from the startup as part of its ambitious push to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2040.
Amazon debuted a version of the van in October 2020, and then tested the vehicles in a number of cities throughout 2021. Now, Amazon says it will use the electric vehicles to make deliveries in a handful of cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Tennessee, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis, among others.
Amazon said it expects to have "thousands" of Rivian vans in more than 100 cities by the end of this year, the first step toward its goal of having 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road in the U.S. by 2030.
"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," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement. "Rivian has been an excellent partner in that mission, and we're excited to see our first custom electric delivery vehicles on the road."
Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said the vehicle deployment is a "milestone" in efforts to decarbonize last-mile delivery.