Rivian ends Amazon exclusivity, seeks new suitors for commercial vans

Rivian will make its EDV available to customers other than Amazon, the company announced today as part of its Q3 earnings presentation.

Beyond the excellent R1T and R1S light-duty vehicles which Rivian is known for, the also makes commercial heavy duty vehicles in the form of the EDV, a delivery van which it designed for Amazon.

Amazon ordered 100,000 of these vans in 2019, and Rivian has steadily been fulfilling that order, which goes through 2030. They’re starting to appear out and about, but the order will take years for the company to fulfill as it ramps up production. So far, Rivian has delivered 10,000 EDVs which have delivered over 260 million packages in more than 1,800 cities in the US, and even some in Germany.

But today, the company is following through on the planned end of its exclusivity agreement with Amazon, and is now making the vans available to any other company that wants to order them.

The vans come in two sizes, with up to 9,500lb Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and 2,734lb of payload. Rivian offers a custom software stack that provides access to real-time fleet information, a boon for commercial users.

“We’re excited to open sales of our electric commercial van to more businesses. Around a quarter of CO2 emitted in the transportation sector in the US comes from commercial vehicles, so it’s imperative we do all we can as soon as possible to help cut emissions. Amazon is, and will remain, a key partner for us, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the Amazon team as we help them to achieve their Climate Pledge goal.”

RJ Scaringe, Rivian CEO

Rivian said today that it’s “already speaking to additional customers, who also love the Rivian Commercial Van,” but declined to elaborate on who those customers might be.

Electrek’s Take

As part of the announcement, it looks like Rivian is renaming the vehicle from the EDV, or Electric Delivery Van, to the Rivian RCV, or Rivian Commercial Van. So perhaps Rivian is looking to expand to kitting out this vehicle to something other than deliveries.

Opening up the van to different sorts of upfitting other than the standard delivery configuration opens tons of options. For example, we could see something like this electric Winnebago which we had an opportunity to drive/sleep in.

However, since it’s still calling the vehicle a “commercial” van, which suggests the company still sees primarily commercial applications. So, it would probably end up being used for deliveries mostly, as that is the most common use for this class of vehicles, but we could see more bakery trucks, or potentially food trucks or the like.