Rivian wants out of its exclusive agreement with Amazon for EV delivery trucks

Rivian wants out of its exclusive agreement with Amazon for the EV maker’s electric delivery trucks, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

Rivian and Amazon struck a deal in 2019 to hand over 100,000 electric trucks to the e-commerce giant. Amazon began delivering packages with the vehicles in July, and Rivian last month touted 10 million packages delivered via the vans.

But Amazon, Rivian’s largest shareholder, has since underwhelmed with its order numbers, telling Rivian it wanted to buy about 10,000 vehicles this year — the low end of a previously stated range, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the discussions to end exclusivity.

Amazon said in a statement to CNBC that 10,000 vehicles was the original commitment, and that there has been no change to its order volume or partnership with Rivian.

“While nothing has changed with our agreement with Rivian, we’ve always said that we want others to benefit from their technology in the long run because having more electric delivery vehicles on the road is good for our communities and our planet,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

Rivian spokeswoman Marina Norville said in a statement the company’s relationship with Amazon has and continues to be a positive one.

“We continue to work closely together, and are navigating a changing economic climate, similar to many companies,” she said.

Eliminating the exclusivity piece of the agreement would allow Rivian to court new customers as it works to ramp production of the vans and its R1 series pickup and SUV. The company is also working on a forthcoming R2 model and is in need of cash.

Last week, Rivian announced plans to raise $1.3 billion via a sale of convertible notes to help fund R2 development and launch.

Shares of Rivian fell about 3% in premarket trading Monday.