familiar with the matter, Rivian wasn't happy with the fact that Amazon decided to only buy around 10,000 electric vans in 2023 - within the bounds of the contract, but only just.
As we reported last year, Amazon had already taken delivery of around 1,000 electric vehicles as of November when Rivian reportedof $1.7 billion in that quarter alone. Amazon has committed to buying 100,000 of the electric trucks by 2030, and a spokesperson told us that hasn't changed - except the exclusive part, maybe.
"While nothing has changed with our agreement with Rivian, we've always said that we want others to benefit from their technology in the long run because having more electric delivery vehicles on the road is good for our communities and our planet," an Amazon spokesperson told"We will have more of our custom vans from Rivian hitting the streets every day as we continue to partner together to bring 100,000 electric vans to the road by 2030.
We asked Amazon for an update on the number of Rivian vans on the road, but it only said there were"thousands" without providing a number.The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the news makes it appear that Rivian is solely responsible for the renegotiation, a question which neither Amazon nor Rivian answered when we put it to them.
Rivian didn't respond to our questions at all, which means we only have the EV company's previous troubles to use as a metric by which to judge whether this latest news is good or bad, and it's probably not good.