SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, March 18, Amazon announced that it will be testing its electric delivery vans in San Francisco. The company, valued at $1.7 trillion, has developed a partnership with start-up Rivian Automotive. Rivian has raised over $8 billion in investments since 2019. Founded in 2009, Rivian develops electric vehicles, products, and services aimed at creating sustainable transportation.
San Francisco is the second California city that this partnership has expanded to. Amazon started testing the electric delivery vans in Los Angeles last month. The company announced that it hopes to test the vehicles in as many as 16 American cities in 2021.
Amazon’s investment in Rivian is part of their $2 billion fund created in June 2020 to invest in climate technologies. This money will be divided to a number of areas, including transportation and logistics, energy generation, manufacturing and food and agriculture, among other divisions that Amazon has devoted themselves to transforming into more environmentally friendly aspects of the company. $440 million was invested directly into Rivian. The $2 billion fund is part of Amazon’s larger Climate Pledge Fund, which has an end goal of being carbon neutral by 2040.
The Rivian vans are expected to travel 150 miles on a full charge. Amazon has already ordered 100,000 of their vans, and plans to incorporate these fleets as part of their full time service as early as 2022.
