On Thursday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ordered 100,000 Rivian Electric Trucks for its delivery service. The huge order is part of an initiative made by Amazon to make the company carbon neutral by 2040. Thus, fulfilling the United Nations Paris Agreement 10 years before its due date in 2050. Amazon will deploy all 100k vehicles by 2024.
Amazon’s plan to make the company environment-friendly is part of the company’s “Climate Pledge” plan. Several other companies are also invited to join Amazon’s efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.
It is important to note that Amazon workers recently went on strike worldwide to protest the company’s involvement in environmental degradation.
Amazon has also invested $700 million in the Detroit-based electric automotive company Rivian. Ford and Cox Automotive have also invested $500 million and $350 million in Rivian respectively.
Rivian Electric Trucks
There is no technical information on the Rivian Electric truck that will be used for delivery by Amazon. However, we can expect them to have a huge amount of storage space to keep a lot of stuff. Since these trucks will mostly drive around the city bearing heavyweight, instant torque would be a requirement in these trucks along with high battery mileage and an efficient cooling system.
There is confirmation that Rivian plans to sell these trucks to other companies as well. Rivian, however, does have plans to help Cox Automotive with its “service operations, logistics, and digital retailing.”
For the general public, Rivian has two upcoming electric vehicles in the pipeline: a 7-seater SUV known as R1S and a pickup truck called Rivian R1T. The electric SUV was also spotted in Argentina a few weeks ago and looked almost production-ready.
Rivian plans to launch these vehicles in 2021 with a variety of trim levels. All Rivian trucks will have some level of autonomous driving along with a big towing capacity.
Unlike Tesla, Rivian has positioned themselves along the lines of a traditional manufacturer. They’re based in the motor city of Detroit and the company is starting its portfolio by selling SUVs and Pickup trucks first, vehicles most Americans favor.
A number of companies including FedEx, Pepsico, Walmart and several more have placed orders for Tesla semi. But none of those orders are as big as the one Amazon just placed. Currently, Tesla is busy ramping up production to compete with the upcoming VW I.D. 3 and Porsche Taycan.
There haven’t been any major instances where Tesla a chance to lock horns with Rivian, despite both of them attracting a very similar kind of audience. Maybe when the Tesla pickup truck finally launches, the companies will begin to tread on each other’s territory.
