Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Amazon plans to deploy 1,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian, equipped with vision-assisted package retrieval, early next year — Reuters reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, Amazon will start utilizing interior lights in trucks to guide drivers to the correct packages.
In August, Rivian halted production of the electric commercial van it produces for Amazon due to a parts shortage which has been escalating since, according to the manufacturer.
Earlier in the month, the company had over one thousand vans accumulated in the parking lot of its plant in Normal, Illinois.
To date, Rivian has shipped over 15,000 of these vans to Amazon across the United States and a few units to Germany. A year ago, in October of 2023, Amazon had received 10,000 units.
In 2019, Amazon placed a $7 billion order with Rivian for 100,000 electric delivery vans to be delivered by the end of the decade.
After adding AT&T to its customer list late last year, the company led by RJ Scaringe has been in discussions with several other companies aiming to expand the customer portfolio.
Over the last few months, a few pictures were shared on social media showing vans branded by DHL fueling speculation about a forthcoming deal with the global logistics giant.
In June, Rivian’s CFO Claire McDonough said the company was “in the market speaking to a number of large B2B enterprise players”.
(Story being updated)
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
