We download YouTube’s #1 tech expert on whatever he’s been driving this month
THIS MONTH: AMAZON RIVIAN VANMARQUES BROWNLEE
Something a little bit different this month because you can’t actually buy this vehicle and, unless you get yourself a job at Amazon, you’re unlikely to ever drive one. Depending on where you live in the world though, you could see them on the road every single day.
Yep, it’s the Amazon Electric Delivery Van. Amazon contracted Rivian to build 100,000 of these things by 2030, and it recently announced that more than 10,000 are already in use in the US, plus over 1,000 in Germany. They’re used in the day, charged overnight.
The van comes in two different sizes, called the 500 and the 700, with the latter being slightly longer and wider. It’s big business for Rivian too and might end up being one of the main reasons why it gets to stick around and make all sorts of other EVs like the R1S, the R1T and any potential successors.
POWER UP
There’s a single motor and
front wheel drive, which does make
me wonder how it would fare
in adverse conditions. Maybe
they should have also built a twin
motor, four wheel drive version for
cities that get
lots of snow.
SMOOTH OPERATOR
It’s a brilliantly smooth and quiet thing to drive comparedto most internal combustion engined vans. It’ll do
0–60mph in around eight seconds so it’s zippy enough
to merge back into traffic, and it has around 160 miles
of range which is more than enough for what suburbandrivers do in a day.
MIND THE GAP
On the driver’s side
you get a regular door because that opens onto
the road, but on the pavement side you get a
neat sliding door like on old United States Postal
Service vans.
HAPHAZARD
The only physic
