The world’s largest online retailer orders electric delivery vans from Daimler on a large scale.
The Stuttgart-based company announced that the delivery of more than 1200 eSprinter vans and around 600 eVito city delivery vans was the largest order for Mercedes-Benz Van to date. The vehicles should be used in several European countries from this year.
Battery range of 180 kilometers
The eSprinters produced for Amazon have a range of almost 180 kilometers and, thanks to an integrated quick charge function, can be recharged to 80 percent within 25 minutes. The eVitos, which are mainly used in inner-city traffic, can travel 150 to 184 kilometers on one battery charge.
Amazon’s shift towards sustainable transport
“We will hurry to get these vehicles on the road this year,” said Amazon founder and boss Jeff Bezos in a statement from Daimler. Bezos puts the order in a larger context: “We still need innovations and partnerships with car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz in order to decarbonise the transport sector and fight the climate crisis.” His ambition is to build the “most sustainable transport fleet in the world”.
It is unclear whether this promises large contracts for Daimler in the long term. At the same time as the founding of the climate protection initiative “The Climate Pledge” a year ago, in which the participants committed themselves to making their companies CO2-neutral by 2040, Amazon had committed to using electric vans on a large scale in the future.
For a long time there was no talk of orders from Mercedes. Now Daimler has also joined the initiative, which fits in as far as Daimler CEO Ola Källenius already focused on reducing CO2 emissions with the “Ambition 2039” program for the Mercedes division last year.
Rivian is expected to deliver 100,000 vans by 2030
In the future, Daimler must expect significant competition in this market. Amazon has been one of the most important financiers of the electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian from the start, and a few weeks ago it participated again in the latest financing round with a volume of 2.5 billion dollars.
Rivian is expected to deliver 100,000 electric vans to Amazon by the end of the decade, it was agreed last year. However, the vehicles do not even exist yet.
The first delivery vans are announced for 2021, but in the year after next, 10,000 Rivian e-vans should be in use.
