Amazon opens first Arizona bookstore in Scottsdale
Amazon on Tuesday opened its first physical store in Arizona, with the new outlet selling books, electronic devices and other products in the Scottsdale Quarter shopping center.
The 4,000-square-foot Amazon Books location features an array of products that have been well-received by online customers — typically those rated four stars or above on Amazon’s five-star scale and those featuring high sales.
“We built the stores to help customers find their next great read,” said Drew Sheriff, director of Amazon Physical Stores.
The Scottsdale Quarter store is the 20th Amazon Books outlet nationally.
The product selection “is highly curated because the store is only so big,” he added in an interview. It includes localized selections such as books of potential interest to Scottsdale residents.
Nonbook items on sale include tablets, Kindle e-readers, cooking tools, games and popular toys.
The store is a physical extension of Amazon.com that will include customer star ratings and real-time reviews. Books and other products will feature two prices — one for the gen
battery technology in greater detail at its Nikola World 2020 demonstration. This year’s event was held in Scottsdale in April. The venue and date of next year’s conference have yet to be announced.
Longer range, no emissions
The technology also could extend the range of existing electric passenger cars to 600 miles from around 300 miles, with little or no increase in battery size and weight, though Milton said Nikola won’t engage in passenger-vehicle production.
However, the company does plan to share the intellectual property with other manufacturers, including automakers, that pay to be part of a licensing consortium.
“Our goal is to eliminate emissions around the globe,” Milton said. “But we can’t do it all by ourselves.”
According to Nikola, the company’s batteries are lighter, less expensive to produce and less prone to short-circuiting (which can start fires) compared to conventional lithiumion battery cells. Also, their components are easy to recycle and more environmentally friendly for landfills because they don’t contain toxic elements such as nickel, cobalt, magnesium and aluminum, Milton said.
Eliminating those components also makes for less-expensive production, he said.
To bring the new battery closer to production, Nikola is purchasing a company with approximately 20 key employees, including 15 battery engineers with doctorate degrees and five with master’s degrees. They will not be headquartered in Phoenix, Milton said, who didn’t name the company.
By year-end, Nikola will employ around 240 people in Phoenix, at its headquarters and testing center south of Sky Harbor International Airport, Milton said.
Big, bold promises
Nikola, a company just six years old, has upended the automotive world with its claims of higherpowered, less expensive, more environmentally friendly batteries and other technology.
In an interview, Milton conceded the claims might seem far-fetched.
However, “everything we’ve ever promised, we have delivered on,” he said.
That has included the world’s largest hydrogen fueling station, at the company’s Phoenix headquarters, the most advanced fuel-cell heavy truck and the most advanced off-road vehicles, also powered by zeroemissions technology.
Among other ventures, the company is developing all-electric offroad vehicles, jet skis and Hummer-like military vehicles, and it plans to develop a North American network of hydrogen fueling stations.
“We’ve made claims that seem crazy, but we’ve lived up to every one of them,” Milton said while transitioning to another one: “We’ve made the biggest impact on zero-emissions compared to anyone in the world.”
At least some big investors seem to agree: Industrial companies Bosch, Hanwha and CNH Industrial in recent weeks have announced investments totaling $100 million or more each in Nikola.