Amazon orders 100,000 electric delivery vehicles in bid to meet carbon neutral goal

Amazon has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2040 as it announces ‘the largest order ever of electric delivery vehicles’.

The internet shopping giant has ordered 100,000 zero-emission vehicles from EV start-up Rivian, a US-based company that Amazon has previously invested $440 million (circa. £351m) in.

The fleet is expected to start hitting the road in 2021, with 10,000 on the road by 2022 and the full 100,000 delivered by 2030, when the firm says its EV trucks will save a total of four million metric tonnes of carbon per year.

The news came as part of Amazon’s announcement that it had co-founded The Climate Pledge, which challenges companies to be carbon neutral by 2040, 10 years earlier than the Paris Accord’s goal of 2050.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said: “We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue — we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference.

“If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon — which delivers more than 10 billion items a year — can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can.

“I’ve been talking with other CEOs of global companies, and I’m finding a lot of interest in joining the pledge. Large companies signing The Climate Pledge will send an important signal to the market that it’s time to invest in the products and services the signatories will need to meet their commitments.”

The key targets those that sign the pledge must adhere to are to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonisation strategies, and find ways to offset any remaining emissions.