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Comment by ctvo | Hacker News Reader

Rivian, afaik, already had production delays, and are struggling to meet even Amazon's 100k order. What happens to new vans produced if the clause were to be lifted? Does Amazon get preferential treatment? Do they sell the new vans to the highest bidder? Amazon's follow-up orders?

Amazon owns almost 20% of the company so this is interesting. Rivian being more profitable doesn't necessarily make the trade-offs worthwhile for Amazon.

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Amazon's 100k order was probably a mostly symbolic way to make it easier for Rivian to acquire funding.

Production seems to be underway and demand for their vehicles is really strong. Being that Amazon is not really in a rush to pay for the vans right now anyway, letting Rivian get a little healthier on the books may very well be a good idea.

Also doesn’t mean that Rivian instantly starts making vans for anyone else, might just allow them to advertise out the van platform to normal consumers or fleets. I could totally see them selling it directly - esp to the van life and small businesses.

The vans are amazing. I do a double take every time I see them on the road.

This is a thorough tour, and I want one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CWCqJl0BEs i

These talks obviously are going to take a long time with a big company like Amazon. Rivian probably wants to start filling their order book for 2024/2025 which can help them secure additional financing to keep the company going.

Fleet sales take several month to a couple years to close. They have to start now.

Might as well start working on economies of scale for the future if you know the product will be popular and sell.

Starting to get consumer sales started will help to anticipate demand and plan part orders etc.

Other outlets (The Verge) are reporting that Amazon actually only ordered their contractual minimum of 10k instead of the reported 100k, no source cited though.

Just for 2023, though. They're still planning to take delivery of 100k by 2030.

I don't think we know the unit cost of a Rivian EDV, but at $100k per vehicle, 10,000 vans is a $1 billion order.

> 10,000 vans is a $1 billion order

Luckily they only lost $6.8 billion last year.

agreed. if they fulfilled even 80% of their original order, maybe this would make sense.

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