GM’s BrightDrop Ships First 500 EV Vans From Ontario
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BrightDrop, the General Motors Co. startup focused on offering electric delivery options, has shipped the first 500 electric delivery vans out of CAMI Assembly in Ontario, Canada, that opened three months ago, the company said April 3.
BrightDrop’s 2023 Zevo 600 is sold out but the company hasn’t provided a volume breakdown of units per model year. BrightDrop also announced April 3 Ryder System Inc. plans to add 4,000 BrightDrop Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 electric vans to its lease and rental fleet through 2025. The first 200 will arrive this year.
As part of Ryder's advanced vehicle technology strategy, we plan to introduce 4,000 @brightdrop EVs to our fleet through 2025. #RyderEVs https://t.co/xf3l882Wwt
— Ryder (@RyderSystemInc) April 3, 2023
Since GM introduced BrightDrop two years ago, the company has received more than 30,000 reservations for its Zevo vans. It has more than 30 commercial customers including American Tire Distributors, WasteNot Compost and Rexel USA, FedEx, Walmart, Hertz, DHL Express and Purolator. It’s already delivered 150 vans to FedEx that were built at a supplier facility last year while the CAMI plant was prepped for large-scale production.
The Zevo electric delivery vans, part of a growing segment, are expected to bring in $1 billion in revenue in 2023 and $10 billion by 2030. GM expects BrightDrop to approach 20% profit margins by the end of the decade.
BrightDrop, which launched production at CAMI in December 2022 — intends to reach a 50,000-unit annual volume capacity by 2025. Production of the smaller Zevo 400 electric van begins later this year.
The company is now taking reservations for its model year 2024 vehicles, with deliveries expected to begin by midyear 2023.
“Our customers have ambitious sustainability goals and they’re under extreme pressure to deliver on them,” BrightDrop Chief Commercial Officer Steve Hornyak said in a statement. “The quicker we can electrify commercial fleets, the quicker we’ll help combat climate change. We’re laser-focused on scaling production to deliver for our customers, and the planet.”
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