Amazon’s custom, all-electric delivery vehicles are now ferrying packages to customers.
The company has been testing the vehicles, which can travel up to 150 miles on a single charge, on delivery routes in the Los Angeles area.
The custom blue vans are part of Amazon’s pledge to become a net zero carbon company by 2040. To reach the goal, the e-commerce giant made an investment in 2019 to buy 100,000 electric vans from a startup called Rivian.
"From what we've seen, this is one of the fastest modern commercial electrification programs, and we're incredibly proud of that,” Ross Rachey, director of Amazon's global fleet and products, said in a statement.
The company already uses some electric cars to make deliveries. However, the custom van represents Amazon’s attempt to create a vehicle that meets both the needs of its drivers and delivery operations. Last October, the company began showing off the features in the van, which also has a “highway and traffic” driver-assistant system, exterior cameras for a 360-degree view, and integration with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, to pull up directions.
Amazon plans to eventually expand their use in up to 15 additional cities later this year. The company’s goal is to get 10,000 vans on the road by 2022, and then 100,000 by 2030. In addition, two other custom electric delivery vehicles are in the works.
“Amazon has also started getting its buildings ready to accommodate the new fleet of vehicles and has installed thousands of electric vehicle charging stations at its delivery stations across North America and Europe,” the company added.