Weeks before Rivian’s blockbuster initial public offering late last year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos managed to both commend and cajole the electric-vehicle upstart’s chief executive in under 180 characters.
Bezos called Rivian founder RJ Scaringe “one of the greatest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met,” then quipped: “Now, RJ, where are our vans?!”
Nine months later, Amazon and retailing rivals like Walmart are still hard-pressed to get their hands on enough electric delivery vehicles. For all the progress manufacturers have made getting more plug-in passenger cars into the garages of consumers, there are only a handful of battery-powered vans on the market to transport goods to doorsteps.
