LEBANON, TENN. (WTVF) — It's the busiest shopping week of the summer. Major retailers will use lightning deals and summer sales to kick up business during what is normally considered a retail lull.
And it all started with Amazon Prime Day. Now, not just Amazon, but businesses like Walmart and Target offer summer steals for shoppers.
But Amazon has a particularly massive presence in Middle Tennessee with 15 facilities and 11,000 employees. And they're all gearing up for a massive week.
Many people are used to the blue vans delivering packages to their door. But you might notice the fleet looks a little different this year.
Based at the Lebanon Facility known as DTN8, 58 electric Rivian vans will also line up to help deliver the goods people buy on Prime Day.
They're part of the company's pledge to get 100,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030. The company says it spent the past two years building up and investing in its transportation network in order to be greener and also more efficient. So far, 5,000 of the vehicles have been deployed nationwide. And Middle Tennessee was one of only a few pilot areas across the country.
"It's nice to know that our hometown, Nashville pioneered the program," said Senior Regional Operations Manager Eric Trammell. He says in the next three months 198 electric vans will be based out of Lebanon.
The electric vans have state-of-the-art features you might expect from a new electric vehicle: large screens, wifi and bluetooth are inside for the driver. The vans are decked out in cameras so drivers have a 360 degree view of the van and its surroundings. They have automatic braking, automatic locking and unlocking.
And the rear door automatically opens for drivers to access packages when they reach their destination. During the hot summer days, Trammell says the ventilated seats are a favorite feature.
"Everybody loves getting the Rivians, the reasons are what it has to offer: the heated seats, the cooling seats, in addition to the footprint. The concern we have is that everybody wants it but we don't have enough of it right now, but in the next few months, every vehicle out of this building will be a Rivian van for us."
The facility in Lebanon usually ships out 40,000 packages per day, according to Amazon. But for Prime Day, they expect that number to skyrocket to 56,000 packages per day.
