(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. is starting delivery of packages to US customers using the first of as many as 100,000 electric vans built by Rivian Automotive Inc., which aims to hand over thousands of the vehicles this year.
- Vehicle roll-out starts Thursday in Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis
- Amazon expects to have Rivian vans deployed across more than 100 cities by year-end
- Amazon has delivered 430,000 packages and driven 90,000 miles using Rivian pre-production battery-powered vans since 2021
- Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe tells Bloomberg Television his company is working “as hard we can” to hit initial delivery target of 10,000 vans to Amazon by year-end
- “We’ll certainly have many thousands of vehicles on the road by the end of this year, but not providing a specific number,” Scaringe says in interview to air Thursday
- Scaringe says forthcoming layoffs to help company “more efficiently structure parts of the team”
- Rivian is “trying to be as intentional and thoughtful in terms of what that means for the business, what that means for the individuals, as we work through that process”
- NOTE: July 11, Rivian Plans Hundreds of Job Cuts Following Surge in Staffing
- Rivian has made “remarkable progress” since partnership between with Amazon was announced in 2019, Udit Madan, a transportation executive with Amazon, says in Bloomberg Television interview
- Rivian shares pared an early gain of as much as 6.1% to trade up 3.3% at 3:11 p.m. in New York
- NOTE: Oct. 6, Amazon Shapes Rivian’s Future and Hopes for $80 Billion IPO
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