Dive Brief:
- Amazon's Rivian-produced electric vans have delivered more than 75 million packages to U.S. customers since the fleet's rollout last summer, the company announced Thursday.
- The reported total poses a sharp increase from the more than 5 million packages the EV fleet had delivered as of Amazon's Nov. 7 blog post.
- The surge in deliveries is a product of the Rivian fleet's expansion. More than 3,000 EVs are on the road making Amazon deliveries in 500-plus cities and regions across the U.S., Amazon said.
Amazon's Rivian-made EVs making deliveries throughout US
Dive Insight:
Amazon's push to decarbonize its transportation fleet is gaining steam as it looks to grow the number of packages it ferries with EVs. The company's in-house logistics arm made 4.8 billion deliveries in 2022 alone, according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index.
Amazon plans to have all 100,000 EVs it ordered from Rivian on the road by 2030, which it says will eliminate millions of metric tons of carbon annually. However, Rivian has been grappling with supply chain hurdles since the deal was originally announced in 2019. Production snags such as semiconductor constraints continue to weigh on the EV maker’s Normal, Illinois, facility, challenging its ability to meet demand.
“We wish we could have the components still to fully run the plant across all lines, across multiple shifts, but that’s not the case,” CEO RJ Scaringe said on a February earnings call. “We’ve worked really hard to set up our supply chain so as we come out of this year and into 2024, we’re positioned to really grow.”
Amazon and Rivian have recently been in talks to scrap a portion of their EV deal stating that Rivian must sell all vans it makes to Amazon, The Wall Street Journal reported in March. Amazon told Rivian it wanted to buy about 10,000 vans in 2023, on the low end of a previously communicated range, the report added. The e-commerce giant has been working to reduce costs throughout its sprawling logistics network as demand has slowed.
Amazon is also advancing its emissions reduction efforts outside the U.S., with plans to more than double its EV delivery fleet in Europe by 2025. The company said Thursday it has put more than 15 models of EVs on the road in the U.S., the European Union and India. These models include delivery vehicles, e-cargo bikes and e-rickshaws.
