Amazon owns a 5% stake in Rivian
Rivian is making electric delivery vans for Amazon
The van order from Amazon is worth $4.5 billion USD
Rivian is still a small automaker, its first production vehicle has just been introduced, but its partnership with Amazon could make it the “next big thing” in the EV world.
Back in 2019, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon would be ordering electric delivery vans from Rivian in an effort to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Amazon has bought a 5% stake in Rivian, so it will exclusively buy delivery vehicles from it, providing the automaker with a stable and very lucrative customer.
As of now, Amazon has ordered 100,000 vans to be delivered before the end of the decade, with the first 10,000 due by 2023.
The Rivian van is built on a similar platform to the one that underpins the R1T and R1S vehicles, although its range will only be around 150 miles (242 kilometers). The van will be available in three sizes to suit both tight roads or large quantities of parcels.
The reason why Amazon chose Rivian as its means to reach carbon neutrality hasn’t been confirmed, but rumors want that on of the company’s directors owns the production company that filmed the footage of the R1T used at its launch in Los Angeles.
This contract is obviously of massive importance to Rivian, since it is worth approximately $4.5 billion USD. In order to fulfill it, the automaker is prioritising vans over its R1T and R1S mass market vehicles, which means waiting times for the R1T pickup are now stretching up to two years.
In addition to the money this partnership will raise for Rivian, it can also attract it more commercial customers and these types of orders are very lucrative.
With the influx of funding that will be available to it in the next years due to the contract with Amazon, Rivian will be able to expand its operations, introduce new general public models and add to its production capacity. This is why many people believe Rivian could overtake Tesla and become the “next big thing” in the EV world.
