The quiet (yet significant) rise of the electric delivery vehicle
Not as sexy as cars... But maybe more formidable. While the news buzzes with shiny stories on Tesla and fancy new electric car (EV) models, one player in the electric push has gone sneakily unnoticed: the electric delivery van. And big companies are starting to realize its importance:
- IKEA, DHL, AT&T and Amazon built an alliance to pressure EV producers to make electric delivery vans diverse/scalable enough for their massive fleets (IKEA goes electric for all its home furniture deliveries by 2025).
- Hyundai and Kia just invested $110M+ in electric delivery vehicle startup Arrival.
- Amazon ordered 100K electric vans from Rivian back in September, the largest order of EV delivery vehicles ever (part of its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040).
As e-commerce delivery continues to grow... more and more vans are hitting the streets. And companies like Amazon are increasingly incentivized to electrify their fleets to save money on fuel, gain independence from volatile oil/gas prices, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest shift to electric... may not come from consumers buying individual cars. It might come from companies buying work vehicles. Take this new EV alliance of some of the largest vehicle fleets in the world — their investment in EV could move the needle faster than individual consumer purchases can. And the money coming from corporate budgets could fuel innovation in electric that filters down to consumer cars.