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First BrightDrop Dealerships Set To Open This Year

The first dedicated BrightDrop dealerships will open in California later this year, a General Motors executive confirmed to Automotive News this week.

Scott Young, vice president of vehicle distribution at BrightDrop, told the publication that it is “not looking exclusively at existing General Motors dealers,” to set up BrightDrop storefronts, but is instead looking to partner with experienced commercial vehicle dealers. It is currently in talks with dealers in California, where the first BrightDrop storefronts will be built, and plans to grow its dealer network outward from there.

The storefronts will at first sell the BrightDrop EV600 – an electric delivery van being touted as an eco-friendly last-mile delivery solution. FedEx was the first publicly announced EV600 customer, with the logistics company placing an order for 500 examples of the electric van earlier this year. MerchantsFleet has also placed a large order for 12,600 of the vans.

GM told Automotive News that it has already spoken to “hundreds,” of potential BrightDrop customers, although FedEx and MerchantsFleet are so far the only publicly announced buyers. It’s currently not clear how much GM is charging these buyers for an EV600 per unit.

In addition to the EV600, BrightDrop is currently marketing its EP1 electric delivery pallets, which feature in-wheel hub motors to help drivers push heavy delivery pallets. GM says it is also exploring a “number of concepts,” for BrightDrop’s future, including a medium-distance solution that can transport multiple EP1s at one time and a rapid load delivery vehicle concept.

GM CEO Mary Barra said previously that BrightDrop stores will offer fleet customers a “one-stop-shop solution for commercial customers to move goods in a better, more sustainable way.”

BrightDrop customers will also benefit from the company’s new fleet management solutions, as well as its UltiumCharge360 strategy, which makes it easier for fleet managers to find charging stations and set up new charging stalls in their fleet lots.

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Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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Comments

  1. Glad to see GM is moving quickly to get Brightdrop built, sold and serviced. This is one area where GM can have a unique selling proposition when it comes to competing with other EV makers – it will be one of the first out, will be custom built for EVs unlike Fords which are based upon existing platforms, will have a pretty good ecosystem of software and hardware to start out and should be competitive in price due to economies of scale from the Ultium platform. Those vehicles will help clean up the air and cut gas usage more than a small fleet of Tesla’s!

    Reply
  2. I understand GM’s hands are tied when its comes to unions but i don’t understand what leverage dealers have against them. This is a product absolutely no need a dealer network to sell yet still they restricted themselves to an antiquated method.

    Currently GM don’t even have a plan to sell this vehicle to consumer market and say it’s a fleet buyers only product, go figure!

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    1. GM Has clearly done it’s homework before launching Brightdrop and likely realized that there are certain markets where potential customers go through dealer networks to acquire their fleets because of convenience, long standing relationships, or both.
      You can bet that Ford and Ram will have a competitor on the market in the next few years and the dealer network to back it up.

      Reply
    2. First, who’s going to service them? Second, major customers of this thing, specifically FedEx Ground and Amazon, do not own a fleet. Those delivery trucks are acquired, owned and driven by independent operators. Amazon and FedEx Ground simply have an approved equipment list. (You have the option of leasing the van, but it’s from a third-party fleet, not Amazon or FedEx directly)

      They have to do it this way in order to maintain the independent contractor status.

      Reply
      1. I’m quite sure most of those issues have been reviewed and discussed by management between gm, management of the vendors who proposed to make a major purchase of these vehicles as well as ensuring that the selected Maintenance Technicians receive the proper education and training in order to keep these vehicles in service.

        Reply
  3. Does Bright Drop even need dealerships? I think GM will sell more than they can build with just a web page with a picture, a few specs, and an “Order Here button”

    Reply
  4. I really like the Bightdrop logo! Really clever use of negative space.

    Reply
  5. If these aren’t being sold out of Chevy dealers, they better introduce more product than one van and start opening dealers in every metro with a population over 500,000 NOW.

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    1. No reason, GM can only build these so fast, CA will probably suck up all GM can build in the first year or two. Big fleets like Fed Ex and a few others will most likely take all that can be built. This is such an awesome no brainer product for GM, don’t need to “sell”, the economics will sell themselves. Big fleets cannot afford not to buy them, or they will be at a competitive disadvantage.

      Reply
  6. I’m quite sure most of those issues have been reviewed and discussed by management between gm, management of the vendors who proposed to make a major purchase of these vehicles as well as ensuring that the selected Maintenance Technicians receive the proper education and training in order to keep these vehicles in service.

    Reply
  7. I don’t understand the dealer network and storefronts in this day and age.Factory direct,Internet sales and mobile service.The goal is efficiency here people!

    Reply

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