Rivian filed papers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that shone a contact extra gentle on automobiles that will be more important to Rivian within the short-term than its R1T pickup and R1S SUV. These can be the 100,000 Electric Delivery Vans (EDV) arriving initially and solely within the service of Amazon Prime transport. Picked up by the Rivian Owners Forum, the VIN paperwork now with NHTSA determine a “Z” variant for Amazon and an “S” variant for Service. The latter may point out that fleets and the shopping for public will get a crack on the electrical haulers as soon as Amazon’s unique deal runs out.
There’ll ultimately be three variants, all identified by what number of cubic toes of cargo house they supply. The primary two to start out spreading Amazon smiles would be the EDV 500 and EDV 700, adopted in some unspecified time in the future by an EDV 900. Drivetrains will are available three flavors, both single-motor front-wheel drive, dual-motor front-wheel drive, and dual-motor all-wheel drive. Rivian hasn’t shared all of the specs concerning the batteries that can energy these motors. The carmaker’s IPO submitting stated the 2 smaller vans have been engineered to go 150 miles on a cost, though inside testing confirmed the EDV 700 capable of go 201 miles on a cost. The EDV 900 is thought to have the smallest battery and a shorter vary of 120 miles, being aimed toward markets with excessive inhabitants densities the place a number of stops at skyscraper house buildings can empty out a van.
The vans share fundamental parts with Rivian’s retail pickup and SUV, however they will be constructed on a separate “low-feature-content” line on the Regular, Illinois, plant. Even their skateboards differ from the patron fashions, the workhorse Amazon vans sitting on a Rivian Business Autos metal ladder-frame platform versus the aluminum skateboard underpinning the R1T and R1S.
Rivian spoke to Amazon drivers to determine the best way to give them a greater instrument for the job. For consolation, the drivers get options like climate-controlled seats with heated armrests, handles and steps made for simpler ingress and egress in any climate, plenty of lighting, and an infotainment touchscreen. For security, there is a hinged door on the motive force’s facet that protects higher in a side-on crash than a sliding door, and radar and digital camera arrays allow ADAS like automated emergency braking and lane-keep help.
The primary 300 items of the EDV 500 are anticipated to point out earlier than the top of this yr in 15 main U.S. markets. By the top of 2022, Rivian stated it expects to have 10,000 vans in Amazon service in 500 and 700 capacities, reaching a complete of 100,000 vans masking all three trims by 2025. The EDV 500 will make the journey abroad, being produced in right- and left-hand drive, and Rivian apparently hopes the van will make it into a “Cars” movie.
