BrightDrop’s EV410 electric delivery van goes into production in 2023, following deliveries of the GM-backed company’s larger EV600 truck.
BrightDrop
BrightDrop, General Motors’ new electric commercial truck unit, completed production of an initial batch of battery-powered delivery trucks that will soon begin shipping to FedEx and said it’s adding a second, smaller van to its lineup designed for use in dense urban markets.
Production of the first EV600 vans comes eight months after GM announced the creation of BrightDrop, its first new brand since 1998. It’s also the fastest vehicle development program in the automaker’s history, taking just 20 months from inception to delivery, the company said. Deliveries of the first 500 EV600s to FedEx begin in early December, BrightDrop president and CEO Travis Katz tells Forbes. The smaller EV410 arrives in 2023 and Verizon will be their initial customer.
“We structured BrightDrop to be a startup under the GM umbrella that allows us to leverage GM’s strengths, like the Ultium (electric vehicle) platform and manufacturing expertise, but also to be agile and nimble in how we move,” Katz says. “That’s part of how we were able to get these vehicles done—and get them done just in time for that very busy holiday season.”
In the push to shift transportation away from carbon-based fuels to electricity to help slow global warming, much of the attention is on battery-powered vehicles for the consumer market, such as Elon Musk’s high-powered Teslas. But commercial van and truck fleets, which typically operate on fixed daily routes, are likely to move even faster as the cost of fueling and maintaining electric vehicles is lower than for conventional diesel and gasoline models. Rival startups including Rivian, which is building electric trucks for Amazon, UPS van supplier Arrival and newly public Xos Trucks also have aggressive sales plans targeting fleet operators.
BrightDrop, which isn’t yet disclosing the purchase price of its EV600 model, estimates that each unit can save fleet operators about $7,000 a year, owing mainly to its lower fueling expense. The commercial van, with 600 cubic feet of cargo space, goes about 250 miles per charge. In addition to supplying units to FedEx, BrightDrop also has orders for 12,600 EV600s from fleet management Merchants Fleet.
The new electric model arrives as GM works to fix recalled Chevrolet Bolt hatchbacks owing to battery packs at risk of overheating and catching fire. The problem was tracked to manufacturing defects in individual lithium-ion cells supplied by LG. By comparison, BrightDrop is using GM’s new Ultium battery, which has a different design and manufacturing process.
“This is a completely different platform” and GM will directly control the production quality, Katz said. “These are pouch batteries that are modular so you can very quickly create different configurations of cells and different form factors.”
Initial production of BrightDrop trucks is happening at a supplier plant in Michigan, Katz said. Output will expand significantly in late 2022 when the company will begin building its trucks at GM’s CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Canada. Production of EV410 vans begins at CAMI in 2023. BrightDrop didn’t say how many Verizon has ordered for its service fleet.
BrightDrop’s EV600 model will initially go into FedEx delivery fleets.
BrightDrop
