Amazon Rivian electric delivery vans arrive in Canada | Hacker News Reader

Amazon Rivian electric delivery vans arrive in Canada

cleantechnica.com

55 pointsTMWNN55 comments

I've also seen Rivian vans with Factor meal delivery branding, besides the Amazon ones I've been seeing for the last several months/year. Congrats to Rivian for making a real business out of EV trucks.

Strange that Tesla has never attacked this angle. Too focused on self-driving trucks and putting humans out of jobs?

Being associated with delivery vans would dilute the Tesla brand. Imagine seeing beat up Amazon vans with Porsche emblems - it wouldn’t improve your perception of a Porsche as a car you would love to one day own.

Yes, other things the company or CEO does are also diluting the brand. It’s still true that the company can be making a rational decision not to attack this segment.

Rivian’s marketing people probably hate that they’re doing this, but the company had $2.5B revenue and still lost $1.6B the first half of 2025. They’re in survival mode.

> Being associated with delivery vans would dilute the Tesla brand

Counterpoint: Mercedes-Benz fleet vans.

Yeah, which not only doesn’t dilute the main brand, it also doesn’t even dilute the Sprinter brand. Sprinters are called out by name in rap songs, lusted after for van life builds, etc. EV vans make a ton of sense commercially and personally.

In the us they don't sell Mercedes-Benz trucks. instead they have a brand 'freightliner' that sells them with a different logo. You can get remove badge and fit a mercedes one if you want but almost nobody does

> Imagine seeing beat up Amazon vans with Porsche emblems

They're literally Mercedes today though.

Mercedes runs their Sprinter line with the Mercedes star on the front. I know some after-market modifications can turn these into really nice RVs, but they're mostly in the "work van" category. In Europe, Mercedes doesn't really have the same connotations of luxury/aspirational purchase that it does in the US, so maybe that explains the willingness to slap their insignia on a work van. But nobody in the US seems to think Sprinters dilute the perception that other Mercedes are a luxury.

Edit: ugh I see at least two others made exactly this same point while I was typing my comment. I guess it shows that it's a valid one...

In the US Mercedes Sprinter vans are used exclusively by very affluent people so it doesnt dilute the brand there.

I think that's true as a personal vehicle. But you'll see them driving around with ladders, pipes, etc. on them as direct competitors to the Ford E-Series. You definitely don't see the Ford vans turned into luxury RVs though!

No idea how popular they are, but they certainly exist.

https://leisurevans.com/wonder/chassis/

And also lots of the existing Amazon van fleet.

Lexus is also entering the luxury van segment. They're repurposing the LS badge from their flagship sedan to a van which, in concept form, has 6 wheels:

https://www.caranddriver.com/photos/g69178144/lexus-ls-van-c...

they need a platform for the luxury fsd of the future i guess?

Yet strangely being associated with a neo Nazi doesn't?

> Yes, other things the company or CEO does are also diluting the brand. It’s still true that the company can be making a rational decision not to attack this segment.

as the other commenter beautifully said “This kind of commentary creates unnecessary impedance in communication” but also every other CEO is safe or worse (worse). Tim, Zuck… they are all worse, much worse than Elon (as bad as he is as a human…).

Ah, yes, the esteemed Tesla brand, so well-known for reliability, easy access to rapid maintenance, and the top-notch customer relations and support you need to support fleet vehicles…

…oh wait.

Teslas have terrible quality control, they’re impossible to get rapidly serviced, and they are run by a mercurial adversarial asshole. What kind of fleet manager worth their salt would _ever_ consider Tesla?

If I could upvote this more than once I certainly would

> Rivian’s marketing people probably hate that they’re doing this

Somehow I doubt it. It's a big payday for the company and a big vote of confidence by a customer that doesn't mess around (as far as practical concerns go, ethics obviously doubtful). If Rivian wants to sell practical work EVs, this is their ideal scenario. People actually in the market for EV vans are going to do the math, and mostly won't care about the vague contamination by association with the Amazon brand.

That doesn't make sense. Mercedes makes vans. Ford makes E350s but still sells plenty of mustangs. Hell, does the rivian delivery truck even have rivian branding? I haven't seen it if it does.

And moreover, Tesla has been talking up plans for its vaporware semi for ages. If they wanted to avoid diluting the brand, they wouldn't promise such a thing.

They don't even have to call them Tesla. They could be "Whitebox EV Van" brand

> rumor is that it’s possible another big step forward could be coming to The Great White North. Canada may drop its 100% tariffs on China-produced electric vehicles. If that was to happen, the country could get access to all manner of high-tech, unbelievably affordable, ridiculously compelling electric vehicles

For the sake of the Ontario automotive industry and its workers, Canada would probably not eliminate the tariff on Chinese EVs.

But a significant reduction would make sense.

On the contrary, we need to drop all tariff but enforce a % of manufacturing in Canada. That way we can kick out the American manufacturers and the Chinese can take over those factories. This is the same strategy that the US did with Japanese car compagnies.

The current version of America is trying to smother the Canadian auto sector, notably Ontario and Quebec as you referenced. They're somewhat succeeding as we speak. If it's a foregone conclusion that they will continue down this route, why wouldn't Canada let Asian EVs in?

The anti Asia tariffs only make sense if Canada's current allies actually treat them like allies..

I've seen these around here a few times (I live in Central Florida) they are kind of cool looking. I do wonder though, because I have seen a dozen other brands of Amazon delivery vehicles, is Amazon being 'sponsored' by these manufacturers or just buying cars all the time? I am really confused why there's so many different brands.

Amazon was an early investor and pretty much had these built for them.

> I do wonder though, because I have seen a dozen other brands of Amazon delivery vehicles, is Amazon being 'sponsored' by these manufacturers or just buying cars all the time? I am really confused why there's so many different brands.

Amazon runs a program called "Delivery Service Partners" which basically certifies small businesses to deliver Amazon packages. They are given the option of using their own fleet of vehicles if they don't want to lease the vehicles designed by Amazon.

I often see them using plain white vans with Budget Rental or other logos.

This is probably the answer I was looking for, thank you!

Amazon:

https://electrek.co/2019/09/19/rivian-electric-delivery-vans...

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/everything-y...

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/tag/rivian

Rivian Fleet:

https://electrek.co/2023/12/14/rivian-rivn-first-non-amazon-...

https://electrek.co/2025/02/10/rivian-will-now-sell-its-comm...

https://rivian.com/fleet

A “few” times? In Atlanta metro I exclusively see these vans, never any other type, except for temp workers in normal cars.

In Atlanta suburb, I've never seen one, only normal looking vans.

That’s weird. I’m about as far away as you can be from Atlanta and still be considered in the metro area. Maybe it’s dependent on the area.

I thought amazon mostly used 3rd party delivery fleets?

Amazon was a large investor in Rivian (they led a $700M round and own about 16%) and have a commitment for 100k vans by 2030. Amazon’s been using their vans here in Northern California for a couple of years now.

They are buying vans all the time and no one EV company has the capacity to meet their demand.

I was recently amazed by Lecce’s electric garbage trucks silently skating through their streets. Compared to the screaming behemoths in even my rural town, much less 3AM monstrosities that pollute New York, those would be a godsend here.

Hope they start playing jingles like in Taiwan; that garbage truck rumble has awoken me many days on garbage day when I've forgotten to take out the trash the night before.

To the uninitiated it’s Beethoven’s Fur Elise: https://youtu.be/h7DPXpqp9e4

My understanding is that they did a study on the feasibility of Electric Garbage trucks in NYC. The problem was that NYC Garbage trucks are also used as snow plows and it killed their range.

Found an article

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/11/18/dsnys-electric-trucks...

That article suggests electric trucks are suitable for 2/3 of garbage routes and 100% of street sweeping using technology that was already outdated in 2022.

It also suggests NYC was moving forward with the program and bought seven more trucks which would have already aged out by now.

I love the sound of those things crunching trash at ungodly hours. I find it weirdly comforting. What I can't deal with is loud exhausts from cars

Is the Rivian headlight design controversial? I love everything about all of the vehicles they design (interior, shape, etc) except the headlights.

Huge caveat here in that I am not a designer so this is a very amateur take, and I personally like the headlights so I'm quite biased, but I think it's a brilliant design for a couple of reasons:

1. Without having a traditional front grill or badge that is associated with the brand unlike those of legacy makers, Rivian's headlights are a design element which is instantly recognizable as being a Rivian. Even if you post a minimalist silhouette of the front facia, you would know it's a Rivian.

2. The design lends itself well to future evolution, even if the exact dimensions of the vertical oval lights and the bisecting horizontal light bar are changed/tweaked over time, so long as that general design is kept, they will still be identifiable as a Rivian.

Just my two cents as someone with no design expertise and who happens to like the way the headlights and front facia look.

If it's any consolation, I think those things are extremely ugly also.

I think the look they're going for with the headlights is inexpensive and friendly, not cool or sleek or aesthetic.

Rivian R2 arrives in a just a few months. My next vehicle.

It's a damn nice looking vehicle. Fingers crossed the stick the landing and development has gone smoothly. Consumers need more competition.

Maybe the coolest (only cool?) thing Amazon has done.

(One hand clapping?)

they evidently could ship to antarctica, which is cool

https://www.reddit.com/r/antarctica/comments/18zxx2e/amazon_...

My wild guess is they just use USPS for last mile in that case. Knowing the USPS, they probably don't even charge extra.

https://brr.fyi/posts/mcmurdo-postal-mail

I think the massive supply chain is probably the coolest thing. Delivery of anything I need between hours and days. Incredible.

They made same day delivery a real thing in my town, which was amazing when I woke up one day with norovirus and was desperate to get some soup and Pepto bismal. Since I hadn't had time to game in a long time, and now had nothing but time and misery, I threw a gaming PC in the order as well.

Two hours later, groceries and a new computer dropped off on my doorstep. Prime Now is probably the only thing I miss about the cities now that I'm out in the country.

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