Amazon’s fleet of Rivian-made electric delivery vans is growing. Since first rolling out earlier this year, the retail giant’s new zero-tailpipe emission vehicles have made more than 5 million deliveries in the US, with its fleet-size exceeding 1,000 EDVs (electric delivery vans).
That’s still only a fraction of the company’s overall transportation fleet, which is comprised 30,000 Amazon-branded delivery vehicles and 20,000 branded trailers. But the electric-portion is growing, with Rivian eventually expecting to deliver 100,000 vans to the company.
Starting in July, the EDVs first rolled out in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, San Diego, and Seattle. Since then, they’ve been put into service in a bunch of new cities, including Austin, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Madison, Newark, New York, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Portland, Provo, and Salt Lake City.
The vans have been making their way into Amazon’s service, as Rivian’s manufacturing pace slowly accelerates. The EV company said it made 7,363 R1T pickup trucks, R1S SUVs, and EDVs during the three-month period that ended on September 30 — though it didn’t say how much of each. Rivian also said it delivered 6,584 vehicles during the same span. (The company is expected to report its third quarter earnings later this week.)
Of course, supply chain woes and inflation, as well as other hurdles, have conspired to stymie Amazon and Rivian’s goals of an electrified delivery fleet. When then-CEO Jeff Bezos announced a deal with the EV startup in 2019 to buy 100,000 vans, he said they should be on the road by 2024. Now, Amazon projects to hit 100,000 vans on the road by 2030.
“We’re always excited for the holiday season, but making deliveries to customers across the country with our new zero-emission vehicles for the first time makes this year unique,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Amazon Transportation. “We’ve already delivered over 5 million packages with our vehicles produced by Rivian, and this is still just the beginning—that figure will grow exponentially as we continue to make progress toward our 100,000-vehicle goal.”
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23443995/amazon-rivian-electric-delivery-van-fleet-ev....
Amazon purchasing cargo aircraft and ships to reduce shipping costs and circumvent supply chain disruptions has been publicized for some time now.
Amazon is making its own containers and bypassing supply chain chaos with chartered ships and long-haul planesDecember 4 2021
For years, Amazon has been quietly chartering private cargo ships, making its own containers, and leasing planes to better control the complicated shipping journey of an online order. Now, as many retailers panic over supply chain chaos, Amazon’s costly early moves are helping it avoid the long wait times for available dock space and workers at the country’s busiest ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/04/how-amazon-beats-supply-chain-chaos-with-ships-and-long-haul-planes.html Here we see the latest installment of amazon striving to insulate its shipping costs from rising fossil fuel and diesel prices: a fleet of more than 1,000 electric vans. (Projected to hit 100,000 electric vans by 2030)
The media has always been fond of covering ways in which large corporations typically have large advantages over smaller businesses. Here we see yet another prime example of it. As the world enters crisis and issues develop, people will generally seek alternatives. It is possible in the future amazon will seek to acquire electric cargo planes and wind faring ships to compliment its electric vans. Thanks to recent fuel prices, there are many plans in motion to construct sail based, wind powered ships for cargo shipping purposes.
