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Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Sept. 20 announcement that it had placed an order for 100,000 electric delivery vans from Michigan-based startup Rivian could be a shot at Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) Founder Elon Musk, writes Jeff Sonnenberg in Market Realist. To date, Rivian has raised $1.8 billion in private funding, a big deal for a company that hasn't deployed any vehicles that counts Tesla as a main rival, Sonnenberg said. The Musk-Bezos rivalry was heightened with the launch of their respective space ventures — Musk's SpaceX and Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Musk in an April 9 tweet called Bezos a copycat, Sonnenberg noted. The Amazon timetable is so ambitious that Tesla, given its backlog, might not have been able to fulfill the order even if it was given the chance, according to Sonnenberg. Amazon wants 10,000 vans by 2021 and the complete fleet by 2030.
Did you know?
Each year, 1.6 billion tons of food, valued at about $1.2 trillion, is lost or goes to waste, equal to one-third of the total amount of food produced globally, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Resources Institute. This accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the groups.
Quotable:
"When you're very numerical, you're very logical. I'm not very emotional and that's definitely one of my issues, especially in my relationships. People hate to hear statistics," Matt Pyatt, co-founder of freight broker Arrive Logistics, in an interview with Inc. Magazine.
In other news:
National logistics policy for India?
India's commerce ministry has sent a proposed national logistics policy, aimed at promoting seamless movement of goods and reducing high transaction costs, to the cabinet for approval, a senior official said Sept. 23. The cost of logistics in India is about 14% of GDP, higher when compared to other countries. The goal is to reduce the ratio to 9% in the coming years. (News18)
Indonesian e-commerce firm Shipper raises $5 million, promises access to Amazon-level logistics
The company has raised $5 million in seed funding from Lightspeed Ventures, Floodgate Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners and Y Combinator. It looks to capitalize on the archipelago's fast-growing but deeply fragmented e-commerce logistics segment. (TechCrunch)
Customized warehousing, logistics adds value to manufacturing
With advanced tech innovation, the logistics and manufacturing sectors have moved beyond the rudimentary transportation of trade goods in the supply chain. (Entrepreneur India)
Idiot's delight
An American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis was forced to land in Denver last week after a passenger began smoking cigarettes, acting unruly toward passengers and yelling, "You're all screwed!" (CNN)