Rivian’s electric van gets 30% more range and AWD, now delivering

Rivian Commercial Van (Source: Rivian)

Rivian has started delivering the first major hardware upgrade to its electric van since production began in 2021: a bigger LFP battery pack good for 30% more range, and a new dual-motor AWD version.

The company confirmed in its Q3 2026 shareholder presentation that deliveries of the new variants began in early October. That’s the first real spec bump for a van that has been stuck at about 160 miles of rated range for years.

A 129 kWh pack and a dual-motor option

Rivian first mentioned the upgrade in its Q4 2025 letter, which we covered in February when Amazon’s fleet of Rivian vans grew 50%. At the time, Rivian only said it was “developing” a larger battery and AWD to “expand EDV route coverage” in Amazon’s network.

Now it’s shipping. In today’s presentation, Rivian says the new variants are “specifically designed to expand route coverage into more rural networks,” with the AWD configuration and the bigger pack offering “a 30% increase in range.”

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EPA certification documents for the 2027 EDV 700, issued September 17, list the new pack at 129 kWh usable. Rivian has marketed the current van with a 100 kWh LFP pack, so that’s roughly 29% more energy, which lines up with the 30% range claim.

The upgrade is limited to the bigger 700 van, the one with 652 cubic feet of cargo space. The smaller 500 keeps its existing pack and front-wheel drive.

What it means for range

The EPA filing gives unadjusted lab range figures, which always run high because they skip the correction for real-world driving:

• Current EDV 700 (FWD): 261.7 miles
• New EDV 700 FWD: 355.5 miles (+36%)
• New EDV 700 AWD: 322.25 miles (+23%)

Rivian rates the current 700 at “up to 160 miles.” Apply Rivian’s 30% to that and the new FWD van lands around 208 miles. Using the AWD van’s smaller 23% gain from the EPA tests, we estimate the dual-motor version at about 195 to 200 miles.

So AWD costs roughly a third of the range gain. For a van, that’s a fine trade. Rural routes mean longer distances between stops, plus gravel, mud, and snow, which is exactly where a front-wheel-drive van with a full load of packages in the back struggles.

200 miles is roughly what Rivian promised for the van when deliveries to Amazon started in 2022, before the rated figure settled closer to 160 miles. Rivian is finally there, four years later.

Rivian needs fleet customers beyond Amazon

The timing helps on the sales side too. Rivian’s van business is still overwhelmingly Amazon, years after the exclusivity period ended in late 2023. We spotted a Rivian van in Walmart+ livery on a car hauler in Indiana just this week, though neither company has announced a deal.

The competition has also thinned out. GM ended BrightDrop van production in Ontario and Canoo went bankrupt, leaving Ford’s E-Transit as the main full-size electric alternative in the US.

Electrek’s Take

This is the upgrade the van needed. 160 miles was always fine for dense urban Amazon routes, but it boxed Rivian out of a big chunk of the fleet market: rural delivery, utilities, telecom, anyone who can’t guarantee a short loop and an overnight charge.

Getting to around 200 miles real-world, with AWD as an option, opens a lot of those routes. And unlike most of the EV van market right now, Rivian is actually building and improving its product rather than killing it.

The question is whether Rivian can turn that into customers other than Amazon. A Walmart+ wrap on a car hauler is a nice sign. We’d want to see a real order. If you’re running a fleet and these specs change your math, we’d love to hear from you.

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Source: electrek.co — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.