Amazon's goal of carbon neutrality will help take electric vehicles "to the next level" because the e-commerce giant has a huge fleet of vehicles, Morgan Stanley says.
"Amazon's plans to have 50% of its trips carbon neutral by 2030 implies a major push in electric vans/delivery vehicles," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note Wednesday. "We think investors should prepare for more moves by megafleets to solve for sustainability."
Jonas is widely recognized on Wall Street as one of the first to note the significance of Tesla and electric vehicles to the auto industry. He pointed out that Amazon's carbon neutrality target follows its lead in a $700 million round of capital investment for electric pickup truck and SUV maker Rivian. Jonas featured Rivian in multiple notes last week, calling the start-up "a serious problem for Detroit" and "the next serious competition for Tesla"
Amazon's plan requires "an aggressive adoption" of electric vehicles, Jonas said, "which may penetrate megafleet managers and logistics markets faster than the penetration of private/single-vehicle ownership models."
"In our view, the 'front line' of sustainable propulsion systems will be fought in dense urban and suburban transport networks where large, well-resourced, and technologically savvy companies managing fleets of potentially many millions of vehicles may be held to strict standards of tailpipe emissions by local/metropolitan governments," Jonas added.