Amazon orders 100,000 vans from EV maker

If investments from Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co. weren’t reason enough to take note of Rivian Automotive Inc., a six-figure order announced Thursday by Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has elevated the electricvehicle start-up — all before its first mass-produced truck or SUV has rolled off the assembly line.

The billionaire announced plans Thursday to buy 100,000 electric vans from Rivian, custom-built for Amazon Prime deliveries, as part of an Amazon environmental initiative designed to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord 10 years early. The deal follows a $700-million investment in Rivian that the online retailer led in February.

The order is a major coup for a company that aims to launch its R1T plug-in pickup and R1S sport utility vehicle late next year. Although financial terms weren’t released, Amazon’s planned purchase positions Rivian with a major customer well before CEO R.J. Scaringe begins to test the waters with consumers who’ve been slow to go electric. Segment leader Tesla Inc. didn’t deliver more than 100,000 vehicles in a year until 2017, almost a decade after the arrival of its debut model, the Roadster.

“It’s a very significant deal,” Mike Ramsey, an automotive analyst with consultant Gartner Inc., said. “It means we have a new automaker, for real.”

Amazon plans to start making deliveries with Rivian vans in 2021. By late 2022, Rivian expects to have 10,000 vehicles on the road, spokeswoman Amy Mast said. The vans will be built at the company’s plant in Normal, Ill..

Amazon’s vehicles will share key components with the R1T and R1s, including the battery, but the vans will have a unique body, interior and software, Mast said.

“With the big investments from companies like Ford and Amazon, are we witnessing a new business model for a different kind of company in the auto industry?” Ramsey said of Rivian. “It’s a contract manufacturer that also has its own product.”