Posted Sep 20, 2019, 4:03 PMUpdated Sep 22, 2019, 5:32 PM
It is a start on the hats of wheels. During a press conference organized Thursday evening to present the anti-global warming ambitions of his company, Jeff Bezos, the boss ofAmazonannounced that it had placed an order for 100,000 electric vans with the start-up Rivianwhich will be used to route packages from Amazon to their buyers.
One hundred thousand vans is a record order for the small company whose first vehicles have only just hit the market at the end of last year. At the time, Rivian was indeed known for two vehicles, a pickup (the R1T) and an SUV (the R1S), built on the same platform and presented as cars made for adventure.
With this giant order, Rivian radically changes its universe to turn to professionals. Amazon expects the first Rivian vans for 2021, while the rest of the fleet should be delivered before 2024. The vehicles have been designed and designed near Detroit, the cradle of the American automobile, and will also be assembled in the region of Great Lakes – the electrical system coming from California.
Our fleet is Electrifying! Thrilled to announce the order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles – the largest order of electric delivery vehicles ever. Look out for the new vans starting in 2021. pic.twitter.com/y5qYpuy2WP
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) September 19, 2019
A potential competitor for Tesla?
This is not the first time that Amazon has bet on the company launched in 2009 but which, until this year, has rather evolved in the shadows. In February, the e-commerce giant had indeed invested 700 million dollars in the company, which had just presented its two vehicles at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Rivian was then valued at just over 2 billion.
Amazon is not the only one to have been seduced by the seriousness of Rivian: in April, it is Ford who had shown his confidence in the company by investing 500 million dollars in it. The automaker intends to rely on the industrial methods set up by the start-up to develop its future zero-emission ranges. And, more recently, Rivian managed to land some $350 million from Cox Automotive, a major American automobile distributor. In total, this year alone, the young company’s fundraising brought in just over 1.5 billion in cash.
Thanks to this order, Rivian has in any case just given new arguments to those who present him as a potential competitor for Tesla and Elon Musk. Even if its leader, R. J. Scaringe, a thirtysomething with a trendy geek look, remains much more discreet than his peers.
