Rivian is reportedly seeking to end its exclusivity deal with Amazon, a move which would allow the automaker to sell its electric delivery vans (EDVs) to other companies.
A big piece of Rivian’s success to date has been its deal with retail giant (and one of its major investors) Amazon. which agreed in 2019 to purchase 100,000 electric delivery vans (EDV) from the automaker. The original terms of that 2019 deal granted Amazon exclusive access to the EDV for four years after the first one was delivered, but that was only if Amazon purchased 10,000 EDVs in the first two years after that first delivery, which took place in 2022.
Towards the end of last year Amazon announced it has a little over 1,000 of the EDVs in its fleet. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal published on Monday, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the discussions, the company is only looking to purchase another 10,000 EDVs this year, leading to Rivian seeking to end the exclusivity part of the deal.
When contacted for comment Amazon said it is sticking to the terms of the original agreement remains committed to purchasing the 100,000 EDVs by 2030. For their part Rivian said their relationship with Amazon “has always been a positive one” and that the two companies “continue to work closely together and are navigating a changing economic climate.”
If Rivian scraps their exclusivity deal it would allow them to sell the EDV to other companies sooner than 2026, a move which could open them up to greater sales in that segment. However they will need to ramp up production at the same time, something which they may not be able to do.
Last year Rivian and Mercedes-Benz announced a deal to build electric delivery vans in Europe. However just three months later the deal was put on hold, with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe saying they wanted to focus on building their existing consumer and commercial businesses before expanding further.
