RICHMOND, Calif. — Amazon, hoping to widen the use of green technologies in its operations, is launching deliveries in the Bay Area using electric vans, the company said Thursday.
“As we continue to grow and invest in California, we want to do so responsibly,” said Ross Rachey, director of Amazon’s global fleet and products. The company sees the move as a way to reduce its carbon footprint.
Amazon teamed up with Michigan-based Rivian, a U.S. automaker, to design, build, and deploy the fleet of electric vehicles. The vehicles are the first custom-tailored vans that Amazon is using.
The company unveiled its electric vans in October 2020. Then in February, the company initiated a delivery service using the custom-tailored electric vans in the Los Angeles area.
The van is a first-of-its-kind all-electric delivery vehicle that can drive up to 150 miles on a single charge.
Amazon has also started to prepare its buildings to accommodate the new fleet of vehicles.
Seattle-based Amazon intends to operate 10,000 of these customized vans as early as next year.
In 2020, Amazon delivered more than 20 million packages to customers in electric delivery vehicles across North America and Europe.
Richmond is the first Bay Area city from which the customized electric vans will deliver packages in the region. Amazon intends to deploy the electric vans from more Bay Area cities in addition to Richmond, although a time frame wasn’t immediately known.