Amazon electric van order makes Rivian future more certainAmazon electric van order makes Rivian future more certain

The e-commerce and logistics giant Amazon has announced that it will order 100,000 fully electric vans from the Michigan electric-truck hopeful Rivian.  
The Rivian vans are to be delivered starting in 2021, with 10,000 of them in service as early as 2022 and all 100,000 on the road by 2030.
They’ll save 4 million metric tons of carbon per year by 2030, according to Amazon, which calls it the largest order ever for electric delivery vehicles. 
Rivian has already been on a roll in terms of gathering the funds needed to get its electric trucks to production. Earlier this year Amazon made a $440 million investment in Rivian. Ford invested $500 million in the company—with Rivian expected to build an electric personal truck for Ford around 2022. And recently Cox Automotive invested $350 million. 
Rivian R1T, R1S chassis
The Amazon vehicle is expected to be one of several to be built on the same platform that underpins Rivian’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV, with the battery underneath in a “skateboard” layout—although the Amazon van will have a greatly extended wheelbase. 
The order is part of a accelerated commitment toward renewable energy announced Thursday. Called The Climate Pledge, it embraces Paris Agreement decarbonization strategies, enacts measurement and reporting for greenhouse gas emissions, and aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. 
Amazon now plans to reach 80 percent renewable energy by 2024 and 100 percent by 2030. To that end, it points to its investment in 15 utility-scale wind and solar projects generating over 3.8 million megawatt-hours of clean energy annually. It’s also launching a $100 million climate fund with The Nature Conservancy, and launched a new sustainability website for reporting on its initiatives. 

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