The Waning Fortune of Rivian: A Parable of Ambition and Arithmetic
In the autumn of 2019, Amazon and Rivian inked a covenant-a pact to deploy 100,000 electric delivery vans by 2030. The younger company, still in its adolescence, saw this as a coronation. Five years onward, half that fleet roamed the earth, yet the marriage of necessity and ambition now shows fissures. Amazon, ever the pragmatist, has declared its intent to diversify its chariotry. “We’re committed to 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030,” they intoned, a statement as precise as it was evasive. Note the omission: these are not “Rivians,” merely “vehicles.”