Rivian appears to have secured pizza delivery technology company Slice as a customer for its electric delivery vans, marking only the second publicly disclosed commercial fleet deal since the EV maker opened orders to non-Amazon buyers.
Slice Chief Executive Officer Ilir Sela shared an image Friday on LinkedIn showing a Rivian delivery van branded with the company’s logo, suggesting Slice has ordered vehicles from the Irvine, California-based brand.
Neither Rivian nor Slice had announced the partnership or disclosed the number of vehicles ordered as of Saturday.
“Slice to meet you Rivian. We hope these beauties will serve family owned pizza shops in every neighborhood nationwide,” Sela wrote in the LinkedIn post.
The apparent deal represents only the second major commercial customer Rivian has publicly disclosed since announcing in February it would sell its electric delivery vans—co-developed with Amazon Inc. since 2019 — to other commercial buyers with prices starting at $79,000.
In February, Rivian announced it had delivered 70 units to HelloFresh, a global meal kit provider, marking the first major fleet customer outside of Amazon.
Until then, the California-based EV maker had only delivered its vans to Amazon, its largest shareholder, which has backed the project since 2019.
Slice, according to its website, provides technology tools to help independent pizza restaurants compete digitally.
“We give independent pizzerias the same tools as the big chains, without taking away their independence,” the company says.
The LinkedIn post was first reported by Rivian‘s owner and X user Chris Hilbert.
Slower Than Expected Adoption
Speaking with Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney in a September fireside chat, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe acknowledged that electrification of the commercial vehicle sector has “gone slower than we thought it would.”
“I think the natural big buyers of commercial vehicles have been slower to adopt,” Scaringe said, citing “lots of compounding factors for that, one of which is some of the businesses that would be buying these are capital constrained.”
Scaringe also pointed to geopolitical shifts around electric vehicles that have made potential buyers “careful on how quickly they electrify.”
However, he expressed confidence that adoption will accelerate over the next five years driven by economics rather than environmental considerations.
“The total cost of ownership and the total cost of, let’s say, delivery is notably lower in electric vehicle, if you take a long enough time horizon,” Scaringe said.
Global logistics giant DHL was seen piloting Rivian’s vans last year, though no purchase agreement has been announced.
Amazon Remains Dominant Customer
Amazon remains by far Rivian‘s largest commercial van customer.
The retail giant, which initially backed Rivian in 2019, committed to deploy 100,000 Rivian electric delivery vans by 2030.
Amazon now operates more than 35,000 Rivian-built electric delivery vans globally, up from over 30,000 in late June and 20,000 at the end of last year.
The fleet reached 30,000 units by late June and has expanded to more than 35,000, indicating roughly 5,000 fully electric delivery vans were delivered between July and October.
Rivian had supplied 15,000 vans by August 2024 and expanded that number to more than 20,000 by December. Amazon began deploying the custom-built vans in mid-2022.
Asked by the Goldman Sachs analyst whether the 100,000-unit target remains on track, Scaringe reaffirmed the commitment and said Rivian is already “thinking about what comes beyond that initial 100,000 unit contract.”
“As I think all of you know, Amazon’s fleet is considerably larger than that. And so there’s real opportunities for us to continue to penetrate across the fleet,” Scaringe said.
Despite the ramp-up being slower than originally expected, the company expects van deliveries “to grow quite meaningfully as we look at going into 2026 and 2027,” he said.
