Global tech GIANT Amazon has followed up its $US440million investment in electric vehicle startup Rivian, by ordering 100,000 delivery vans from the American company.

Rivian hadn't until now shown an e-van in its lineup – just the R1T ute and R1S SUV. But both of them use the same so-called "skateboard" chassis platform….which presumably can also be used for the delivery van.

And Amazon says it plans to start using the first of its Rivian vans by 2021, with 10,000 of them on the road that year…..and all 100,000 in work by 2030.

Its landmark order (the largest so far for electric delivery vehicles) will eventually save four million tonnes of carbon per year, it says.
Meantime, Amazon says, it's using the most efficient, cutting-edge vehicle technologies and is maximising efficiencies on its existing fleets – with aerodynamic skirts, mudflaps and automated tyre inflation systems used in North America and double-decker trailers in Europe.

Rivian announced in April that Ford Motor Company had made a $US500m equity investment in the company – and in September it said that global automotive services company Cox Automotive had invested $US350m.