Rivian's Electric Vans To Be Sold To Non-Amazon Customers From February: Report

EV startup Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN will reportedly start selling its electric delivery vans to customers besides online retailer Amazon.com Inc. AMZN in February.

What Happened: The vehicle price starts at $83,000, Detroit Free Press reported, citing Rivian director of fleet solutions Erica Tsypin. The vehicle sold to other customers will be similar in looks and features to the vans already in use by Amazon, the report said, while adding that customers will start receiving both variants of the van this spring.

Rivian did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for confirmation on the timeline.

Amazon was the first customer of Rivian’s electric delivery vans. The online retailer is a Rivian investor and in 2019 it committed to buying 100,000 vans from the startup by 2030.

Rivian's delivery vans come in two variants – the Delivery 500 and the Delivery 700. While Delivery 500 offers a better range and starts at $83,000, the 700 variant has more space for cargo and storage and has a higher starting price of $87,000.

Why It Matters: Under the 2019 agreement, Rivian could sell its vans only to Amazon until the fourth anniversary of the initial delivery date. However, in late 2023, Rivian announced that it revised the terms of its initial agreement with Amazon to eliminate the exclusivity clause, thereby enabling it to sell vans to other parties.

However, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe had previously remarked that he expects a surge in demand for vehicles from non-Amazon customers only from 2025.

"We don't anticipate a significant increase in demand from non-Amazon customers until next year, around the 2025 timeframe," the CEO remarked in early 2024. Scaringe explained that large fleet operators typically undergo pilot programs before committing to large-scale orders due to the complexities of transitioning to an EV fleet.

According to data from automotive research firm Kelley Blue Book, Rivian sold 13,560 electric delivery vans in 2024, marking a growth of 68% from the corresponding period of 2023. Ford, in comparison, sold only 12,610 units of its E-Transit electric van in the period.

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