ST. LOUIS — Amazon.com Inc. said its first wave of Illinois-built Rivian electric delivery vehicles began hitting major U.S. city streets Thursday.
The Seattle e-commerce behemoth (Nasdaq: AMZN) said its first EVs built by Rivian Automotive Inc. in Normal, Illinois, could be seen Thursday in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis and some other cities.
Amazon said it eventually expects the Rivian electric trucks to operate in 100 U.S. cities by the end of this year and 100,000 of the trucks will be on the road by 2030.
Amazon and Rivian originally announced the deal back in September 2019, when Amazon ordered 100,000 of the electric trucks. Now some of those trucks are hitting the highway after what Amazon said was an extensive testing period in which the EVs delivered more than 430,000 packages and accumulated more than 90,000 miles.
"In addition to being sustainable, these new vehicles are also great for drivers — they were designed with driver input and feedback along the way, and they’re among the safest and most comfortable delivery vehicles on the road today," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a statement.
"To say this is an exciting moment is an understatement — we’re thrilled to see this partnership has kickstarted decarbonization projects across the logistics delivery industry," added Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe.
Read more of the story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
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