NYT: Manufacturers Can’t Keep Up with Amazon’s Demand for Electric Vehicles

E-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly demanding such a large number of electric delivery vans in its quest to take over the American economy, that so far no automaker has been able to keep up.

The New York Times reports in an article titled “Can Anyone Satisfy Amazon’s Craving for Electric Vans?” that Amazon has promised that half of its deliveries will be carbon-neutral by 2030, putting pressure on the company to gain access to electric delivery vehicles. But at the moment, the supply of these vehicles is not able to keep up pace with Amazon’s demands.

Amazon has contracted the electric vehicle startup Rivian to make 100,000 electric delivery vans for the company, but whether Rivian delivered the first 10 production vans it promised in December is unknown. Despite Amazon owning almost 20 percent of the electric vehicle company, it has also placed orders with other automakers as the company attempts to boost its electric fleet.

The NYT writes:

This month Amazon said it would buy “thousands” of electric Ram vans from Stellantis, the company formed last year after the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French automaker Peugeot. It has also ordered 1,800 electric vans from Daimler in Europe. And it has formed a partnership with Mahindra, the Indian automaker, as part of its goal to have 10,000 electric three-wheeled vehicles on the road by 2025.

Ross Rachey, the Amazon employee overseeing the company’s global fleet, stated: “The scale and speed at which we’re trying to do this requires a lot of invention, testing and learning, and a completely new playbook.”

Amazon projected that it will have 175,000 fuel-burning vehicles on the road by the end of 2021, according to documents from late 2020. That number is only going to increase as Amazon pushes to deliver more packages itself, without the aid of other carriers like UPS.

The NYT writes:

Through its network of contractors, Amazon now delivers more than half of its orders globally, and far more in the United States. Amazon has six times as many delivery depots now as it did in 2017, with at least 50 percent more new facilities set to open this year, according to data from MWPVL, a logistics consultancy.

That logistics boom, accelerated by the pandemic’s shift to online shopping, multiplies the challenges the company faces in meeting its pledge to reduce its climate impact. Its vow to make half of its deliveries carbon-neutral by 2030 is part of the company’s broader pledge to be net-carbon-neutral by 2040.

Read more at the New York Times here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com