The company’s new electric delivery trucks will be at stake in more than a dozen cities from this year, the company announced on Wednesday. The vans, designed and built by the exciting EV startup Rivian, are already delivering deliveries to customers in Los Angeles. Amazon plans to expand its tests to another 15 cities this year, as it will build on a fleet of 10,000 vehicles by 2022. The companies do not specify which cities they would choose.
In a short video published today, Amazon mentions the fact that the pickups were designed, built and are now being tested within a year. “We love the enthusiasm of customers so far – from the photos we see online to the car fans stopping our drivers for a first-hand look at the vehicle,” said Ross Rachey, director of Amazon’s Global Fleet and Products, in a statement. “From what we’ve seen, it’s one of the fastest growing modern commercial electrification programs, and we’m incredibly proud of it.”
Rivian is a relatively new name in the electric vehicle industry, having only debuted its pickup and sport utility vehicle at the end of November 2018 – despite having been a rogue operation since 2009. CEO RJ Scaringe has finally turned the company in the direction of a more action-adventure customer segment of SUVs and pickups.
Since coming out of the secret, Rivian has drawn in a series of huge investments from several major players. Amazon led a round of $ 700 million in February 2019, followed by Ford’s $ 500 million in April 2019. Recently, Rivian landed $ 2.65 billion from T. Rowe Price and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. (Jeff Bezos recently announced that he will retire as CEO to pay more attention to the initiative.)
Rivian has so far boasted two vehicles: the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV. Built on the same architecture as the delivery van, Rivian claims that its vehicles – which will start at about $ 70,000 – can travel up to about 400 kilometers on a single load, can drive 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds and are finally capable of to manage themselves to some extent.
Amazon originally announced the new delivery van as part of its climate promise to become a carbon-neutral company by 2040.
It’s funny that Amazon’s Rachey mentions the photos of the delivery van posted online. Curious passers-by also captured the unique, extraordinary sound coming from the van as they parked or drove at low speeds. Electric vehicles can be particularly quiet compared to their counterparts with internal combustion engines. Regulators therefore require that they produce an artificial sound when traveling at low speeds to warn pedestrians and other road users who would not otherwise hear the approaching vehicle.
Based on the spacious, scientific sound chosen, it looks like Rivian is going to do something that can best be described as ‘chill / lo-fi beats to relax / study to playlist’. According to The ride with reference to a message from Ry Tesla Canada, the artificial sound of the Rivian pickups is so loud that it can be heard from someone’s house.
It’s not clear if this is the final sound used for the entire Amazon delivery fleet. In other words, there is still time to change that. Please change it.