A Rivian Commercial Van wrapped in full Walmart+ branding was spotted on r/RIVNstock this week riding on a car hauler down the highway. Neither company has said anything about a partnership, but it has me wondering if Walmart is lining up as Rivian’s next big fleet customer.
Walmart’s electric delivery fleet has mostly been built around GM’s BrightDrop. The retailer reserved 5,000 BrightDrop vans back in 2022. After a pilot, it officially added the smaller BrightDrop 400 to its InHome delivery fleet in late 2024, rolling them out in cities like Austin, Dallas, Denver and Orlando.
GM ended BrightDrop production in October 2025 after the van’s Ontario plant sat idle for months, and it isn’t moving the van to another factory. Walmart’s other electric van bet was a 2022 deal with Canoo for up to 10,000 vans, and that ended when Canoo filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January 2025.
That leaves Walmart, which still wants a zero-emissions supply chain by 2040, without an active supplier for purpose-built electric delivery vans. Rivian has been selling the Commercial Van to fleets of any size since February 2025 with no minimum order, and HelloFresh signed on with 70 vans a couple of months later.
A fully wrapped van on a hauler looks more like a pilot unit on its way to work than a one-off test. Walmart tested BrightDrop before committing, so I’d expect a small rollout before any big announcement here too. Rivian reports Q3 earnings this Thursday afternoon, and I’ll be listening for any mention of new fleet customers and will share more with you all as soon as I hear anything.
