Amazon has a lot of passion for the automotive industry especially electric delivery vans. Amazon has done various agreements with different companies and automakers manufacturing electric vans like Rivian, Stellantis and more. Amazon wants to claim as many electrical vans as it can even before they are produced.
The trend had increased significantly since everything shifted to the online mode due to the pandemic that came around. The company took a pledge that it will be having half of its deliveries carbon-neutral by 2030 relying on renewable energy and net carbon neutral by 2040 and reducing its climate impact on the environment.
Amazon is also known to be a major partner for electric vehicle startup Rivian. The partnership between Amazon and Rivian was announced in September 2019 following the company’s climate plan. Jeff Bezos had praised the founder of Rivian, R.J. Scaringe, calling him one of the greatest entrepreneurs he had met. Amazon had a contract with Rivian that it is going to make 100,000 electric deliveries for Amazon as a part of the climate pledge. Amazon confirmed that it owns around 20% of Rivian. Amazon had invested almost $1.3 billion in Rivian to make 10,000 vans by this year. Amazon has also locked up exclusive rights to the Rivian’s commercial vans for 4 years. It has also the right of refusal 2 years after that. Rivian had confessed to investors that a significant amount of their near-term revenue would be coming from Amazon
Amazon and Rivian mentioned that had tested the vehicles on the road for almost four months before they sent their deliveries. Amazon has received the first delivery of the custom-built electric delivery van by Rivian. It doesn’t look very different from the already existing van that consumes traditional fuel but it is innovative in its interior design having some of the unique features like sensor-based traffic assist features, 360-degree cameras for digital display, wider interior floor space to aid the drivers getting to and from the cabin section. Not to mention it is also surrounded by tail lights to enhance the braking visibility for other drivers. It also has three level shelving that is integrated and a bulkhead cargo compartment that separates the door.
Amazon revealed that it has invested in one of the three different Rivian models. The electric van has various design changes which include the upgraded safety features known as the “state of the art” sensor detection, traffic and highway assist technology, exterior cameras with a 360-degree view outside the vehicle and the vans are also equipped with the digital voice assistant, Alexa, providing hands-free route information.
Stellantis is another largest auto company in the world having brands like Fiat, Citroen and more. The company is expected to earn 4 billion euros from its services by the year 2024 and 20 billion euros by the year 2030. Stellantis has also joined hands with Amazon to collaborate to deliver software solutions for Stellantis’ innovative digital cabin platform, STLA SmartCockpit. SmartCockpit will effortlessly integrate with customers’ digital lives to create a more innovative personalized, intuitive in-vehicle experience. The software will offer its services through an app store displaying an intelligent and adaptive user interface. The interface will provide timely and relevant information/features according to the vehicle’s user. The solution is going to come around in 2024. The company will be using web services from Amazon to fulfil its computing needs that are included in the product development.
The software could offer a family trip planner recommending some media content, interest points, restaurants, shops and more. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in the release that they are trying to leverage the AI and cloud solutions that will transform the vehicles into personalized living spaces enhancing the overall customer experience. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in the release that the smart solutions will enable Stellantis to speed up personalized in-vehicle experiences so that every moment can be safe and smart.
The partnership includes developing an onboard electronic system that will integrate the digital voice assistant Alexa to its vehicles like Jeep and Ram trucks. The software platform will be AI-based and it will be having applications specified for entertainment, vehicle maintenance, navigation and payment services. Moreover, the company will provide the vehicles for its delivery services as well. AWS is the preferred cloud provider of Stellantis for its vehicle platforms. The cloud will provide the mobile network and the computing power required for future vehicles. This collaboration will result in a lot of new digital products.
The partnership will help Amazon to be successful in the transportation industry and Stellantis can close the gap with Tesla in developing vehicles with software providing a lot of additional functionalities connected with the data processing cloud.
Amazon will be the first commercial customer for new Ram ProMaster Battery Electric Vehicles when they will enter the period of production. These new electric delivery vans will be launched in 2023. Although the financial details are not revealed, Amazon is planning to buy thousands of Stellantis Ram ProMaster electric vans and put them on the road every year. So, in some years, it is expected that the Amazon deliveries might come in an electric Ram Van. The agreement is between Amazon and Ram parent Stellantis which was formed recently from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot maker PSA Group.
As said by an Amazon spokesperson they will design Stellantis’ new Ram ProMaster Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) with exclusive last-mile delivery features and will deploy the vehicles all around the USA. According to him, the vehicles will be launched in 2023. Stellantis and Amazon have been working together for quite a time now and have collaborated n the past as well like in 2018, the two companies collaborated in order their support Amazon’s last-mile operations in Europe and North America. Right after that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, another automotive group delivered Amazon with thousands of Light Commercial Vehicles to Amazon which included the Fiat Ducato, Ram ProMaster, Peugeot and Citroën LCVs. Stellantis and every other automaker out there is going electric to fulfil the needs of the user. The next battery-powered Ram ProMaster will be the automaker’s first-ever model to debut that will be all electrical.
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