The micromobility startup spun out of Rivian has also signed a commercial deal with Amazon to supply e-commerce companies with thousands of new pedal-assisted cargo four-wheelers that are large enough to carry more than 400 pounds and small enough to use bike lanes.
In a multi-year collaboration, the two companies will work to customize pedal-assist vehicles to suit Amazon’s delivery needs in Europe and the United States. At an event in Auckland on Wednesday, it was announced that the TM-Q pedal-assist electric quad will be available in spring 2026, alongside the company’s new electric bike TM-B.
And although Also is a new company, its executives already have a long-standing relationship with Amazon. Rivian, the EV maker from which Also was born, is also backed by Amazon, which has supplied the company with more than 25,000 electric delivery vans.
“We really understand how to work with each other,” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe told TechCrunch ahead of the event, adding that everything learned from the EDV van program went into this project. “In this regard, having Rivian as a majority shareholder is very convenient, as we are able to closely coordinate all of this through one fleet management portal that manages our large vehicles, such as our EDV vans, as well as our Also products.”
The advantage, Scaringe added, is that Amazon knows exactly what it needs. “There is no guesswork and we also benefit from a lot of input from the Rivian teams involved, because they are very close to Amazon.
It also started as Skunkworks within Rivian and spun out of the EV maker earlier this year with a new name and $105 million in funding from Eclipse Ventures. Although it is also an independent company, it has close ties to Rivian, which holds a minority stake. Mr. Scaringe will serve on the board of directors, and Mr. Ars will also leverage, and has already taken advantage of, the automaker’s technology, retail presence and economies of scale.
The TM-Q electric bike and Also’s TM-B electric bike share much of the same DNA, including the drivetrain, which is a pedal-by-wire system developed by Also. Some of the physical elements are the same, particularly the handlebars and the built-in 5-inch circular touchscreen that can be rotated to lock and unlock the vehicle. The touchscreen unit, which displays navigation, media controls, fitness stats, and assist levels, syncs with the Also app, allowing users to check battery charge, download software updates, manage security, and more.
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Although these vehicles share the same battery technology, quad cargo vehicles have more power capacity. Instead of building large batteries into electric quad vehicles, we kept them portable and removable. President Chris Yu also said the company is working on building a battery docking station that can actually be replaced.
Unlike consumer two-wheelers, the TM-Q is tailored for commercial use and includes software to handle logistics, delivery, and charging. Emily Barber, Amazon’s global fleet director, said the TM-Q’s small size and pedal-assist system make it ideal for delivering packages to customers in dense urban areas.
Micromobility for four-wheeled freight vehicles is already in operation. Barber said Amazon has more than 70 micromobility hubs in cities across the U.S. and Europe.
But Amazon isn’t TM-Q’s only customer. Yu also noted how popular the quad design was within the company and said the company would not limit quad freight vehicles entirely to commercial customers. The company also announced the consumer TM-Q, which features the same underlying Quad platform but lacks a delivery van topper. Instead, the vehicle is equipped with a bench system that is spacious enough to carry several friends, children, pets, and groceries.
And Yu and Scaringe hinted that there could be other iterations in the future.
“It’s less about what’s on top and more about the quad platform underneath,” Yu said.
Scaringe points out that this comes with clear benefits. “What I like about this car is that it costs like a billion dollars to make a new top hat on a car. It costs a lot less to make a new top hat here,” he said with a laugh.
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