Amazon and Rivian showcased their custom electric van late last year for customer deliveries. Today, the company announced that it has started making deliveries to customers in parts of Los Angeles using Rivian"s electric vehicles (EVs). Amazon said the latest milestone is part of the its initiative called The Climate Pledge, which aims to promote the use of 100% renewable energy by 2030 and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Amazon and Rivian kicked off road tests for the vehicle more than four months ago in order to gauge its performance and safety durability in various geographical and environmental conditions. Rivian built the current fleet of electric vans at its Plymouth, Michigan-based headquarters. The EVs can drive up to 150 miles on a single charge and production will commence by the end of this year.
As part of the testing, Amazon plans to deploy more electric delivery vans across 15 more cities this year. The company is also modifying its buildings in preparation for the fleet of vehicles, with thousands of EV charging stations installed at its delivery stations across North America and Europe. Eventually, "tens of thousands of vehicles" are expected to ferry customer orders over the next few years.