(Credit: Amazon)Amazon is rolling out electric delivery vans in Europe, with the first 300 hitting the streets of Munich, Berlin, and Dusseldorf, Germany, in the coming weeks.
The new vans come from Rivian, which designs, develops, and manufactures category-defining electric vehicles and accessories, and join Amazon’s already-existing fleet of electric delivery vans in Europe. The company already has more than 1,000 electric vans in Germany. Last year, Amazon announced it planned to invest more than $1 billion – including more than $430 million in Germany – to electrify its European transportation network.
Amazon announced its partnership with Rivian in 2019 and renewed plans last year to bring thousands of custom electric delivery vehicles to more than 100 cities and 100,000 across the United States by 2030.
“Together, Amazon and Rivian designed and built a state-of-the-art electric vehicle from the ground up, and unlike anything else on the road today,” Neil Emery, Amazon’s director of global fleet and product, said in a statement. “The safety and comfort of our drivers were top of mind for us throughout this process, and we’ve raised the bar on both with the vehicle we are rolling out in Europe today.”
The retail giant began rolling out the custom electric vehicles from Rivian last summer and has already delivered more than 3,000 vans delivering packages in over 500 U.S. cities and regions. Amazon stated it aims to have 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian on the road globally by 2030.
Preproduction vehicles from Rivian have been in a testing phase in Europe since last year, enabling the car maker to improve the vehicle’s performance, safety, and durability in various climates and geographies, Amazon stated. The European vans are designed to be thinner and shorter than their counterparts in the U.S. to better fit European city streets.
The electric vehicles are in line with Amazon’s intent of reducing its carbon footprint. Amazon co-founded and is a pledge of the Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040.
The custom vehicles include a number of technology-forward features, including 360-degree visibility and vehicle features that protect drivers and pedestrians, a large windshield for greater driver visibility, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and collision warnings. Plus, Amazon touted a first-of-its-kind embedded technology integrated with the delivery workflow of the vehicle, enabling seamless access to routing, navigation, driver support, and more.
Electric vehicles are not the only strategy Amazon is leveraging to reduce its carbon footprint. The e-commerce conglomerate is also buying green energy, becoming the largest buyer of green energy in 2021, according to one analysis last year.
