Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
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Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
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Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#2whats the carbon footprint of producing a single van?
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#3So how does this work? Right now, Amazon outsources delivery. Will they be building huge garages for their fleet? Or trying to get their drivers to pay for the vans, like Uber? And like they did in 2018, when they "bought" 20,000 Mercedes vans?[1] That deal: "Amazon will not own the vans but they will be handled by fleet management companies, who will then lease them to the delivery service owners."
[1] https://multichannelmerchant.com/operations/amazon-adding-fl...
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#4whats the carbon footprint of producing a single van?
IIRC the build energy is around the same as ~20k-30k miles of driving. Obviously this is dependent on many variables, but it's a significant amount - around 17 tonnes for a mid-range hatchback car [1]
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20...
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#5whats the carbon footprint of producing a single van?
Less than that of a van that continues to generate carbon after it leaves the factory.
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#6Amazon led a USD 700 000 000 investment round in Rivian last February. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/02/electric-truck-startup-...
(Edit: change amount from thousands to millions)
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#7As far as I'm concerned, this move is pure greenwashing until Amazon stops collaborating with oil and gas companies to extract fossil fuels faster.
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#8whats the carbon footprint of producing a single van?
The more correct question is:
Liftime EV-Van Footprint = Production-Footprint(EV-Van) + Operational-Footprint(EV-Van, lifetime-miles-driven)
vs
Lifetime ICE-Van Footprint = Production-Footprint(ICE-Van) + Operational-Footprint(ICE-Van, lifetime-miles-driven)
This calculation overwhelmingly favors the EV van, increasingly so as the carbon footprint of the operational electricity source itself reduces in footprint (i.e. increasing use of solar, window, nuclear, etc). Delivery vans in particular have a charging profile (late evening through morning) that matches the peak production of wind.
Note that the carbon footprint of petroleum use is strictly higher than even the highest carbon sources of electricity, and it has a high extraction cost also.
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#9Wow, 100k is no small change. Hoping this accelerates the "tipping point" for electric vehicles - in my mind that's when the infrastructure for EVs (e.g. charging stations, or something in the future like battery swaps) actually makes it easier to own than a gas vehicle.
Re: Amazon orders 100K electric delivery trucks from Rivian
#10whats the carbon footprint of producing a single van?
Carbon footprint is one thing to be critical about, but a bigger advantage with electric vehicles is removing point source pollution and moving the ghg production to powerplants. Powerplants are usually farther away from people (not idling under their windows) and often have more stringent emission standards than vehicles. There's also the opportunity to make electric vehicles with renewable energy barring the petroleum products that compose the vehicle itself.