Rivian is teaming up with American telecom big AT&T to provide it with electrical automobiles beginning in 2024, together with the Electrical Business Van (ECV) which was off-limits to anybody besides Rivian and Amazon till not too long ago.

After the exclusivity settlement with Amazon ended within the third quarter of this 12 months, AT&T is the primary firm to strike a take care of the American automaker to purchase the electrical van for its fleet. Moreover the ECV, the telecom firm will even purchase R1 EVs.

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In keeping with the 2 firms, a pilot program together with the ECV and R1 automobiles will begin early subsequent 12 months, however the variety of automobiles bought hasn’t been disclosed. AT&T mentioned that it’ll consider the varied methods these automobiles assist enhance security, scale back prices, and lower its carbon footprint.

Relating to the latter, America’s largest wi-fi provider goals for carbon neutrality by 2035, so shopping for extra EVs ought to assist it attain that concentrate on extra simply. AT&T additionally makes use of hybrid and different electrical automobiles in its fleet. Again in 2010, it purchased the primary Ford Transit Join Electrical vans that had been retrofitted to run on electrical energy by Azure Dynamics and supplied as much as 80 miles of vary on a single cost.

As for the Rivian Electrical Business Van, it is available in two sizes, each powered by the identical Enduro electrical motor mounted on the entrance axle and LFP battery pack. The smaller Supply 500 mannequin can drive as much as 161 miles on a full cost and has a gross automobile weight score of two,734 kilos, whereas the larger Supply 700 has a barely shorter driving vary of 153 miles however has a GVWR of 9,500 lbs and is longer and wider than its entry-level sibling.

Rivian’s EVs won’t essentially be the answer for these instances while you get no cell reception, however they’re a cool and environmentally pleasant addition to AT&T’s fleet.