Rivian has kicked off the first deliveries of Amazon’s electric delivery vans. The ones known as ADV-700 have begun their deployment in North American cities such as Chicago, San Diego, Seattle or Dallas, among others. At the moment they have only been able to deliver a few units, although they hope that by the end of the year they will already be operating in more than 100 American cities.
Amazon placed a huge order for these electric ADV-700s to Rivian in 2019. That order consisted of a total of 100,000 units that would be delivered gradually until 2025, a date that was finally extended in time until 2030. However , and despite the fact that the first large-scale deliveries have just started, both companies have already started testing certain units during the year 2021, on which they have already completed almost 150,000 kilometers and delivered more than 430,000 packages.
These vitally important long-haul tests for Rivianaccording to sources from the company itself, since through the data transmitted by its drivers it was possible to improve the performance, safety, efficiency and durability of the vehicle over the different climatic environments that the country has.
From both companies they have been very cautious with the specifications that this vehicle has, since no specific details have been published about its electrical mechanics beyond the fact that it has around 250 kilometers of autonomy. In addition to this, it is known that the model was designed specifically for Amazon and that it has certain advances regarding the active and passive safety of its occupants, such as adaptive cruise control or automatic emergency braking, among others.
But Rivian’s plans will not end with deliveries of the full order to Amazon, as They already estimate the launch of new electric models aimed at the more professional market. RJ Scaringe himself, CEO of Rivian, has recently confirmed that the chassis developed for the ADV-700 will have many other applications, including a series of smaller models that would be supported by the components that it would share with the next range of R2 models that the North American company is already developing.
This alternative to the ADV-700 would be smaller in size, as Amazon’s electric van isn’t especially compact, and would be aimed at breaking into new markets such as Europethus taking advantage of the landing that the company will carry out in the old continent starting next year.
Scaringe expects Rivian to make around 1 million electric vehicles a year from 2030 and “much more than that” as the years of that decade go by.. These plans will require multiple vehicles of different sizes and shapes, as well as new platforms to support them. Additionally, they will need a larger number of production facilities beyond what they currently have in Normal and the one projected for Georgia. The CEO has confirmed that his plans include open new plants in different markets to be able to scale the manufacturing and distribution of their models.
Currently, Rivian is fighting hard against the lack of supplies, as well as not to increase the prices of its electric models too much, which have already suffered a significant increase in their quotas. However, from the company they hope to reach their forecast of manufacturing 25,000 units of the R1T and R1S by 2022 and later increase this figure to 150,000 units in 2023.
