Did Amazon convert its delivery fleet back to diesel "as electric doesn't work"? No, that's not true: A public relations manager from Amazon told Lead Stories on December 18, 2023, that this claim is false. An Amazon article from October 2023 said that the company plans to put even more electric vehicles on the road, in addition to the electric vehicles that are already in service.
The claim appeared on Facebook (archived here) where it was published on December 11, 2023. It reads:
Amazon converts fleet back to diesel as electric doesn't work🤣🤣
Well, well, well, who knew!
Amazon completely converts Sprinter fleet to diesel again. "Electric drive does not fit the service concept."
This is what the Facebook post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Dec 18 16:19:38 2023 UTC)
The post does not cite a source for the purported quote, "Electric drive does not fit the service concept." There is no link accompanying this claim that would give further evidence that the claim is true.
Steve Kelly (archived here), a public relations manager at Amazon told Lead Stories in a December 18, 2023, email that this claim is "false":
The post is false ... Please see the AboutAmazon post from less than 2 months ago which shares the latest update ...
The AboutAmazon post Kelly is referring to is an October 17, 2023, article (archived here) written by Amazon staff. In it, the article details company plans to bring 100,000 electric vehicles to the road by 2030 in a partnership with Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer. The article states that Amazon first began using electric vans in the summer of 2022 and wants to incorporate more electric vehicles, like e-cargo bikes and e-rickshaws. There was no indication that electric vans had been rolled back or that diesel engines, fuel tanks and exhaust were being swapped into vehicles designed and built for electric motor propulsion.
Lead Stories searched Google News for any evidence to support the claim found in the Facebook post. A search of the keywords, "Amazon AND delivery fleet AND electric AND diesel" (archived here) did not yield any results in Google News' index of thousands of credible outlets.
Other Lead Stories articles on claims regarding Amazon are here.
