AT&T is Rivian’s latest EV customer following Amazon deal

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AT&T will pilot new Rivian-made fleet electric vehicles in 2024 in a deal that breaks the automaker out of its exclusivity agreement with Amazon.

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

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Rivian commercial van with AT&T logo on side

A mockup of the upcoming Rivian electric van for AT&T.
Image: AT&T

Rivian finally has a second customer for its commercial electric vehicles. Today, AT&T announced it’s spinning up a pilot program to switch its commercial fleets to EVs, including Rivian’s commercial van and R1 platform trucks.

AT&T is Rivian’s first customer to purchase commercial EVs outside of the automaker’s long-exclusive deal with Amazon. In 2019, Amazon agreed to purchase 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian, but the retail giant reportedly only met bare minimum orders of 10,000 units per year, adding fuel for Rivian to try and end its exclusivity agreement.

AT&T’s first Rivian EVs are expected to join the fleet in early 2024. However, there are no details on how many vehicles are in the initial pilot or whether there are more orders in the pipeline. AT&T has a company goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2035 and sees the electrification of its fleet as a contributor to that plan. Rivian is also agreeing to use AT&T as the exclusive in-car connectivity provider for all of its vehicles in the US and Canada.

Rivian had struggled to build its commercial vans for Amazon on time and had only started delivering the first batch of electric vans to Amazon last year. By November 2022, Amazon said it had “over a thousand” of them in the fleet. Despite the friction between the companies, Amazon is still a major investor in Rivian.

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