Rivian Ships Electric Van With Bigger Battery and AWD

Rivian has started delivering a bigger-battery version of its electric delivery van, along with a new dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant. The company confirmed in its Q3 2026 shareholder presentation that deliveries of the new versions began in early October.

It is the first major hardware upgrade to the van since production began in 2021. Until now the van has sat at about 160 miles of rated range. Rivian says the new variants are "specifically designed to expand route coverage into more rural networks" and describes the larger pack as "a 30% increase in range."

What the EPA paperwork shows

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 the new one holds roughly 29% more energy.

Only the larger 700 van, with 652 cubic feet of cargo space, gets the upgrade. The smaller 500 keeps its existing pack and front-wheel drive.

The EPA filing gives unadjusted lab range figures, which run high because they skip the correction for real-world driving. Rivian rates the current 700 at "up to 160 miles." Applying the 30% to that figure puts the new front-wheel-drive van near 208 miles. Electrek, using a smaller 23% gain from the EPA tests for the AWD version, estimates about 195 to 200 miles for the dual-motor van.

Rivian had promised about 200 miles for the van when deliveries to Amazon began in 2022, before the rated figure settled closer to 160 miles.

Earlier signals

Rivian first mentioned the upgrade in its Q4 2025 letter. At the time it said only that it was "developing" a larger battery and AWD to "expand EDV route coverage" in Amazon's network, when Amazon's fleet of Rivian vans grew 50%.

The van business is still overwhelmingly Amazon, years after the exclusivity period ended in late 2023. Electrek spotted a Rivian van in Walmart+ livery on a car hauler in Indiana this week, though neither company has announced a deal.

Competition has thinned as well. GM ended BrightDrop van production in Ontario and Canoo went bankrupt, so Ford's E-Transit is the main full-size electric alternative left in the US.

Source: Electrek