Looks like the Normal, IL assembly plant will get busy again. 100,000 electric delivery van order for Amazon.
It should be most amusing to hear what Elon Musk will tweet about this. Amazon is one of the investors in Rivian (Ford Motor Co. is another) so they have a vested interest in making these trucks work.
Look at the larger picture driving this. Bezos has workers threatening to strike over Amazon's "carbon footprint" and this is one of the logical steps to reduce that, or at least reduce the perception of it, or at least to reduce the workers' ability to garner sympathy if they try to strike over it.
Electric vans with rapid recharge are a sensible thing for last-mile delivery, particularly because if they should run low they can be served by a comparatively small fleet of service trucks with gensets and energy storage. If, as I think likely, they will use large electric drones to transfer packages from truck to 'delivery point' on premise, the ability to keep them recharged with a high-capacity DC source is still more valuable.
What is interesting in this case is that pure BEVs will work effectively -- unlike Musk's larger or long-distance trucks -- in their likely intended service. Let's see who understands this and who doesn't in the following days of press releases and NPR stories ...
Considering that electric trucks were commonly used in urban areas 100 years ago... Companies suchs as Amazon, UPS and FedEx have a very good idea of how far their trucks travel in a work day and as such would know how to make use of an electric delivery truck.
Two issues I see are: Weather extremes affecting battery capacity and matching charging times with off-peak demand vs generation hours (think "solar duck").
It will be interesting see if Rivian and Tesla succeed in electric commercial trucks.
Besides the huge obstacles of material, mechanical, electric, etc. engineering, finding reliable suppliers is tough for any automotive start up. Rivian will likely pay higher prices for parts just like Tesla had to do in the early days.
Will Rivian become another failed startup like Faraday Future or Lucid? Only time will tell.
Gramp 100,000 electric delivery van order for Amazon
Russell
csxnsWill they ship out by Rail?
I believe I read somewhere that Amazon was also buying rail compatible overseas shipping containers and intends to take advantage of low rail rates for some shipping. I am not looking for the link this time you guys need to use Google. It was either Trains or Railway Age or a business related publication in which I read this.
CMStPnP csxns Will they ship out by Rail? I believe I read somewhere that Amazon was also buying rail compatible overseas shipping containers and intends to take advantage of low rail rates for some shipping. I am not looking for the link this time you guys need to use Google. It was either Trains or Railway Age or a business related publication in which I read this.
csxns Will they ship out by Rail?
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