Rivian promises to begin selling electric vans to non-Amazon customers in 2023

Amazon-backed EV start-up Rivian has promised to begin selling its commercial van to non-Amazon companies starting in 2022, with deliveries expected for 2023, but questions remain as to whether the company is biting off more than it can chew.

Along with its spectacular stock exchange float, Rivian has continued to make headlines with its R1T electric ute and R1S electric SUV, as well as the speed with which the company is aiming to scale up production and delivery.

Building block atop block, Rivian this week also quietly revealed details about sales for its commercial fleet van. Instead of an official announcement, Rivian opened up a new section of its website detailing the vehicles, software, charging solutions, and services available for companies to electrify their fleets.

Based around the company’s commercial van – which hitherto has only been available to online retail giant Amazon, who has invested heavily in the EV start-up – Rivian’s promises orders for the Rivian Commercial Van (RCV) will open in 2022, with deliveries scheduled to start in early 2023.

Having already led a $US700 million ($A920 million) investment round in Rivian in 2019, Amazon also revealed that it was collaborating with Rivian on designing an electric delivery van. This was followed by Amazon placing an order for 100,000 RCV units through 2024.

Amazon and Rivian gave a glimpse of the electric delivery vans in late-2020, and earlier this year Amazon began making deliveries using the Rivian Commercial Vans.

Given the lack of any official announcement, details are limited and still being worked out by Rivian, as it seeks to finalise leasing and financing programs. But the fleet program will offer not only the opportunity to order the RCV, but also Rivian’s own advanced fleet management operating system and AC and DC chargers.

Questions still remain, however, over whether Rivian will be able to meet the lofty and ambitious production requirements it is setting itself.

Rivian was recently sued by Laura Schwab, a former sales and marketing vice president at Rivian, for alleged gender discrimination. Amongst the charges Schwab laid against Rivian, however, were claims that Rivian had manufacturing-quality issues and had set itself unrealistic delivery targets.

Concerns around Rivian’s own production and delivery promises were brought into focus earlier this month when Rivian published an amended prospectus filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ahead of its public listing on the Nasdaq.

Buried within the filings were revelations that Rivian’s waiting list for the R1T and R1S is already pushed out to late-2023.

Regardless, Rivian is still planning a Europe launch in 2022 as well as planning for launches in countries such as Australia.

Rivian’s prospectus also confirmed that the company has only produced 180 R1Ts and delivered 156 R1Ts –nearly all of which were delivered to Rivian employees.

Rivian is nevertheless looking to immediately ramp up production and begin customer deliveries in December, and by the end of the year Rivian aims to have produced approximately 1,200 R1Ts and 25 R1Ss, and to have delivered approximately 1,000 R1Ts and 15 R1Ss.

Rivian was reported in August to be in discussions to invest at least $US5 billion in a new vehicle plant located near Fort Worth, Texas – a move which led Tesla CEO Elon Musk advising on Twitter that Rivian should “get their first plant working” before building a second factory.