Rivian will promote its industrial electrical vans to any U.S. enterprise that wishes one — greater than a 12 months since ending an exclusivity cope with backer Amazon.
The corporate will promote two vans — the smaller 500 and the bigger 700 — however patrons must be registered companies, in keeping with the corporate. Meaning any hopeful van-lifers must wait and see if Rivian ever sells them direct.
The launch of its industrial van fleet enterprise opens a possible income stream that has sat dormant since Rivian and Amazon ended their unique deal in November 2023. The brand new potential line of enterprise comes at an important time for the corporate, which is doing all that it might probably to pare losses forward of the launch of a more-affordable SUV subsequent 12 months.
Rivian has been noticed performing plenty of trials with potential fleet customers. And the EV maker has spent the previous 12 months making ready a industrial fleet line for a broader swath of companies, which included constructing out service infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and gathering suggestions through pilots from fleet prospects, in keeping with spokesperson Tanya Miller.
“During the last 12 months we now have been focusing our efforts on testing with some bigger fleets, and we’re actually happy with how these trials have gone,” Tom Solomon, Rivian’s senior director of enterprise improvement, mentioned in a press release.
Rivian began producing the industrial vans in 2021, two years after Amazon introduced it had ordered 100,000 of the automobiles as a part of an effort to scale back its local weather impression. Amazon was already deeply invested in Rivian when it struck the exclusivity settlement for the industrial vans. Simply seven months earlier than, the e-commerce large led a $700 million funding spherical in Rivian.
Amazon now has 20,000 industrial vans produced by Rivian in its fleet, in keeping with Solomon.