据今日油价9月21日报道，亚马逊(Amazon)杰夫?贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)在初创企业Rivian Automotive上押下重注，将发布历史上规模最大的电动汽车采购订单。
这家总部位于密歇根州的初创公司将在未来10年内为亚马逊建造并交付10万辆电动汽车。首批10万辆电动汽车将于明年完成交付，于2021年开始投入使用，到2030年，亚马逊车队的全部10万辆电动汽车将全面投入使用。
周四，贝佐斯在华盛顿国家新闻部的一个活动上宣布了与Rivian的交易。他的演讲主题是气候变化。他表示，这10万辆汽车完全投入使用后，将减少400万吨的碳排放。
这也符合亚马逊成为市场领先的城市快递公司的趋势——在邮递和隔夜产品投递方面击败了UPS和联邦快递——其中大部分来自亚马逊不断增长的仓储网络。亚马逊(Amazon)正与电动汽车一起研究无人机送货业务，以帮助巩固其占主导地位的送货业务和作为全球领导者的形象。
亚马逊预计，随着政府排放法规的增加，电动交通规模将不断扩大。亚马逊考虑整合电动汽车和它的自动驾驶汽车也是有道理的——专家预测，为了更好地服务城市市场和满足要求，自动驾驶汽车和电动汽车将不可避免地融合在一起。
购车价格和总支出尚未公布，但这笔交易将与亚马逊2月份做出的7亿美元的融资承诺分开。
亚马逊表示，该公司于去年11月在洛杉矶车展上发布了一款电动皮卡和运动型多功能车(SUV)，受此启发，决定投资7亿美元。当时，Rivian没有任何客户，但他设计的电动七人座RS1 SUV和四人座RT1皮卡给大家留下了深刻的印象。
该公司坚固耐用、续航能力更强的电动汽车给投资者留下了深刻印象，这些汽车可以越野、载货、经得起磨损，在商业方面击败了特斯拉。
起初，随着通用汽车(General Motors)放弃了在商用电动汽车市场击败特斯拉(Tesla)的战略，Rivian似乎注定也要失败，但随后是福特5亿美元股份和亚马逊的支持。
本月早些时候，该公司获得了总部位于亚特兰大的考克斯汽车公司3.5亿美元的投资。作为有线电视大型公司考克斯企业(Cox Enterprises)旗下的一个部门，汽车部门近年来通过收购Kelley Blue Book、Autotrader.com和NextGear Capital，确保了自己在汽车服务领域的主导地位。该部门已拥有美国最大的汽车拍卖连锁企业曼海姆拍卖公司(Manheim Auctions)。
Rivian相当大的一部分投资表明，考克斯集团对其商业电动汽车的发展充满信心。投资者希望Rivian能从特斯拉的错误中吸取教训。由于三款特斯拉车型没有共享很多共同的部件， Rivian的汽车将共享最昂贵的零部件，包括电池组和动力总成。
总部位于密歇根州安娜堡的Navigant Research的首席分析师Sam Abuelsamid表示，在公司早期阶段开设一家可以生产多种电动汽车型号的工厂，将为这家初创企业提供所需的资金。亚马逊的电动汽车将在电池、动力系统、电子元件和连接性方面共享其中许多零部件，但有些内饰和外观是专门为亚马逊设计的。
洪伟立 摘译自 今日油价
原文如下：
Amazon Makes The Largest Ever Electric Vehicle Purchase
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is betting big on startup Rivian Automotive by placing the largest-ever electric vehicle purchase order in automotive history.
The Michigan-based startup will be building and delivering 100,000 electric vans to Amazon over the next decade. The first 10,000 will start hitting roads in 2021 and completing the delivery the next year, with all 100,000 EVs fully operational in Amazon’s fleet by 2030.
Bezos announced the Rivian deal at an event Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with a speech focused on climate change. That 100,000-unit fleet will eliminate 4 million metric tons of carbon emissions when fully operational, he said.
It also fits nicely into Amazon’s move to become the leading urban delivery company in the market - beating out UPS and Fedex for postal and overnight product deliveries - with much of that coming from Amazon’s growing warehouse network. Amazon is looking into drone delivery along with EVs to help seal its dominant delivery presence and its image as a global leader.
Amazon expects that electrified transportation will eventually become sizable with government emissions mandates increasing. It also makes sense for Amazon to consider integrating EVs and its autonomous vehicles - which experts predict will become an inevitable fusion for best serving urban markets and meeting mandates.
The vehicle purchase price and total expenditure weren’t revealed, but the deal will be separate from the $700 million funding pledge Amazon made in February.
Amazon said that it was inspired to make the $700 million investment by the electric pickup and SUV the company revealed in November at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Rivian didn’t have any customers then, but impressed visitors with sleek prototypes of the electric seven-passenger RS1 SUV and four-passenger RT1 pickup - featuring what the company claims will be a 400-mile-plus range.
Investors have been impressed with its rugged, longer-range EVs that can go off-road, haul cargo, and stand up to wear-and-tear. Another competitive edge has been beating Tesla to the commercial side of the business.
Rivian had looked like a losing cause initially with General Motors pulling out of its mission to beat Tesla to the commercial EV market. Then came Ford's $500 million stake and Amazon's backing.
Earlier this month, the company secured a $350 million investment from Atlanta-based Cox Automotive. A division of cable TV giant Cox Enterprises, the automotive division in recent years has secured its dominant position in automotive services through acquisitions of Kelley Blue Book, Autotrader.com, and NextGear Capital. The division had already owned Manheim Auctions, the largest auto auction chain in the US.
Investing a sizable chunk in Rivian shows that the Cox conglomerate has much confidence in its commercial EVs taking off.
Investors expect Rivian to learn from Tesla’s mistakes, which has suffered from having its three Tesla models not sharing many common parts. Rivian’s vehicle lineup will share the most expensive parts and components, including the battery pack and powertrain.
Opening a plant that can manufacture multiple EV models in the company’s early phase will offer the startup the capital it needs, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Ann Arbor, Mich-based Navigant Research. Amazon’s EVs will share many of these parts in battery, powertrain, electrical components, and connectivity - but some of the interior and exterior are being designed specifically for Amazon.
