Amazon has announced that the company will start using its new electric delivery trucks in about 16 cities in the United States later this year. The new delivery vans, designed and built by electric vehicle startup Rivian, is already operational in Los Angeles.
The company is now planning to expand its testing to 15 more cities this year but it has not revealed the name of these cities yet. With this, Amazon seems to be on its way to having a fleet of 10,000 electric vans by the end of 2022.
For those who are unaware, Amazon had earlier announced the purchase of 100,000 delivery vans which will be produced by Rivian, in which Amazon is one of the major investors. This is a part of the online retail giant’s ‘Climate Pledge.’
The electric vans can travel up to 150 miles on a single charge. Amazon has already started prepping its facilities for the vans and adding thousands of charging stations at delivery centers throughout North America and Europe.
Rivian is an electric vehicle startup which was operating in stealth mode since 2009 and launched its pickup truck and SUV in November 2018. The company was started with the aim of launching Tesla Roadster competitor, it pivoted to making SUVs and pickup trucks.
The company has received a significant amount of funding, including a $700 million round led by Amazon in 2019 and $500 million from Ford in April 2019. Recently, the company managed to get another $2.65 billion from T. Rowe and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
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