Amazon adds first 300 Rivian EVs to fleet in Europe

The e-commerce giant will roll out 300 Rivian electric vans across its fleet in Germany in the coming weeks. They will serve routes in and around Berlin, Dusseldorf and Munich.

The addition of the vans forms part of Amazon’s commitment to add more than 1,000 electric vans to its German fleet as soon as possible – a vision supported by some €400m of investment.

This forms part of a broader €1bn funding pot for fleet electrification across Europe, as confirmed by Amazon late last year. Amazon is aiming to operate more than 10,000 electric vans in Europe by 2025, up from around 3,000 in 2022.

Regarding Germany specifically, Amazon’s country manager Rocco Brauniger said the firm delivered around 45 million packages with EVs last year. This figure should grow for 2023 with the addition of the Rivian vehicles.

Amazon and Rivian’s partnership has received much attention, partly given that the latter business has designed custom models to suit the fleet operation needs of the former.

Amazon began adding Rivian models to its US fleet last summer and now operates more than 3,000 in the states. For Europe, Rivian has designed a shorter, thinner van than its US counterpart. This accounts for the fact that roads in cities are generally narrower in Europe than in the US.

“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,” said Amazon’s director for global fleet and product, Neil Emery.

“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.”

Globally, Amazon is aiming for half of its shipments to be net-zero emission by 2030. This will require not only changes in road transport but innovations in low-carbon aviation and shipping.

Despite making strong headway on fleet decarbonisation, Amazon last year recorded an 18% increase in its absolute CO2 emissions. This was largely attributable to increased sales, with the business not yet able to decouple growth from climate footprint. A new, comprehensive sustainability update from the business is due out later this year.

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