Meal-kit company HelloFresh has added 70 all-electric Rivian vans to its fleet, the first major customer to buy the commercial EVs since the automaker ended its exclusive deal with Amazon.
The 70 all-electric commercial vans represent nearly one quarter of HelloFresh’s fleet, which has already helped the company save an estimated 20,000 gallons of gasoline, according to a blog post the company posted Wednesday. HelloFresh said the shift to electric has reduced its CO2 emissions output by 200 tonnes.
Rivian, which produces and sells two van sizes, has wanted to diversify its customer base since ending its exclusivity deal with Amazon in November 2023. But the automaker didn’t officially open its commercial van fleet business to other companies until February 2025. The EV maker spent that gap year preparing a commercial fleet line for a broader swath of businesses, which included building out service infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and collecting feedback via pilots from fleet customers, Rivian has said in the past.
Rivian has been spotted performing a number of trials with potential fleet customers. However, HelloFresh is the first to publicly declare itself a customer and incorporate the vans into a fleet.
As Rivian works to add more commercial customers, it is still producing vans for Amazon. Rivian started producing the commercial vans in 2021, two years after Amazon announced it had ordered 100,000 of the vehicles as part of an effort to reduce its climate impact. Amazon was already deeply invested in Rivian when it struck the exclusivity agreement for the commercial vans. Just seven months before, the e-commerce giant led a $700 million investment round in Rivian.
As of February, Amazon had 20,000 commercial vans produced by Rivian in its fleet.
