Rivian Ships First Amazon Electric Delivery Vans to Germany

Rivian Automotive Inc. expanded deliveries of the battery-electric van it makes for Amazon.com Inc. to Europe in the EV maker’s first commercial shipments outside the US.

(Bloomberg) — Rivian Automotive Inc. expanded deliveries of the battery-electric van it makes for Amazon.com Inc. to Europe in the EV maker’s first commercial shipments outside the US.

The company will roll out more than 300 plug-in delivery vans in the coming weeks to German cities including Munich, Berlin and Dusseldorf, Rivian said in a statement Monday. Amazon, Rivian’s largest shareholder and biggest customer, has ordered 100,000 vans to be delivered by the end of the decade. 

Rivian has deployed around 3,000 last-mile electric vans to Amazon in cities across the US. It had initially agreed to deliver 10,000 vans to Amazon by the end of last year, a target it missed.

Irvine, California-based Rivian is a leader in the large pack of American EV startups chasing Tesla Inc. In addition to the delivery vans, it makes two models for consumers — the R1T pickup and R1S sport utility vehicle — at its sole production facility in Normal, Illinois.

In December, Rivian shelved a plan to jointly build electric vans in Europe with Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

Read More: Rivian Surges After Quarterly Production Beats Expectations

The company has turned a corner on production after a stop-start 2022 in which its shares plummeted. Amazon, along with backers like T. Rowe Price Group Inc., propelled Rivian’s 2021 listing, the sixth-biggest in US history. On Monday, Rivian reported production for the second quarter that beat expectations.

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