Amazon is piloting a new four-wheel, pedal-assist electric delivery vehicle built by Also, a spin-off from electric-truck maker Rivian, in a bid to make city logistics cleaner and more efficient. The vehicle—called the TM-Q—combines the stability and cargo capacity of a small van with the compact footprint of an e-bike. Amazon plans to deploy the TM-Q in several major cities as part of its broader strategy to decarbonize last-mile delivery.
The TM-Q aims to solve one of the toughest challenges in urban logistics: moving heavy loads quickly through crowded city centers where trucks are inefficient and often unwelcome. Designed to slip through traffic and park in tight spaces, the vehicle lets couriers pedal with electric assist or switch to full battery power on steep hills. The TM-Q also cuts down on the emissions and noise that have made traditional vans a target of new low-emission-zone regulations across Europe and the United States.
The project marks the first large-scale deployment of pedal-assist “micro-vans” by a global logistics company—a new middle ground between cargo bikes and delivery vans.
Rivian’s Micromobility Spin-off
Also began as an internal Rivian project to explore how the company’s EV expertise could extend into micromobility. It became an independent company in early 2025 with US $105 million in Series A funding from Eclipse Ventures. Rivian retains a minority stake, and founder RJ Scaringe sits on Also’s board.
“Everything we learned from the Electric Delivery Van (EDV) program was poured into this project,” Scaringe said at the launch event in Oakland, Calif. That program allows Amazon to manage both Rivian’s electric vans and Also’s new quads through a shared fleet-management system—a logistical advantage for a company already operating more than 25,000 Rivian EDVs worldwide.
All of Also’s hardware and software are built in-house, using lessons from Rivian’s vehicle architecture but with a separate supply chain, leadership team, and technology stack.
The TM-Q’s pedal-by-wire powertrain merges human input with the same kind of safety-tested control logic found in full-size electric vehicles—just scaled down for a bike. Torque and cadence sensors at the crank measure how hard and how fast the rider pedals. Those signals feed a controller that, within milliseconds, determines how much electric power to add from the rear-hub motor. The harder the rider pushes, the more assist the system provides—up to legally defined limits (250 watts continuous in the EU and higher in the U.S.).
“We’re applying car-level engineering to machines that move through city bike lanes.” –Chris Yu, Also
Because the drivetrain is fully electronic, Also can tune the assist ratio through software updates—a practice borrowed from Rivian’s EV tuning. The system also applies regenerative braking, recovering small amounts of energy to recharge the battery when slowing or stopping.
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