The first units of the new all-electric BrightDrop EV600 light commercial delivery van have been delivered to FedEx, ushering in a new era of all-electric commercial products from General Motors.
The delivery of the first units of the BrightDrop EV600 commercial van coincide with delivery of the first units of the GMC Hummer EV off-roader.
“This is the first chapter for Ultium – and for GM’s transition to a zero-emissions future,” said General Motors President Mark Reuss. “Both commercial and retail customers will benefit from the EV experience, from exhilarating acceleration to low cost of operation, versatility and ability to customize after the sale.”
The all-electric BrightDrop delivery van is part of the broader BrightDrop ecosystem of commercial electric products. First announced during the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), BrightDrop is focused on providing last-mile delivery solutions, logistics, software, and services. The BrightDrop portfolio also includes the smaller EV410 delivery van, as well as the BrightDrop EP1, the latter of which is an all-electric pallet designed to easily move goods over short distances.
The BrightDrop EV600 is the fastest-developed GM product in the company’s history, and features GM’s Ultium Platform, incorporating a dedicated EV architecture, plus Ultium battery technology and Ultium drive motor technology. The powertrain includes all-wheel drive and two electric motors, a 20-module battery, and an estimated driving range of 250 miles, plus a peak charging rate of 170 miles per hour. Cargo room is rated at 600 cubic feet, with a GVWR of less than 10,000 pounds. Full-scale production will take place at the GM CAMI Assembly plant in Canada.
The BrightDrop EV600 will also be available in a front-wheel drive configuration, as well as a single-motor setup and 24-module battery pack, per an exclusive GM Authority report.
GM expects the demand for urban last-mile delivery to grow by 78 percent by 2030, primarily driven by e-commerce shopping. What’s more, General Motors is working towards the launch of 30 new all-electric models globally by 2025, two-thirds of which will be offered in North America.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more General Motors electric vehicle news, General Motors technology news, General Motors business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Winner, winner, chicken dinner! How much is one of these rigs?
I would guess $75K + or –
They said last Sept that it should fall in line with the E-Transit which starts at about $45k, but I’m guessing the sky is the limit from there.
I’ve not commented on any articles about this new van or any articles relating to them. However, I really feel impelled to say this. First, I like electric vehicles and believe (only with using renewable energy sources like solar/wind power) that all electric is the best way forward. However, I understand where many people don’t like the idea or they just don’t want to go that route yet. Second, I find delivery trucks/semi’s to be the largest portion of the polluting ICE powered things on the roads today. I’ve said this forever and will stick by it. The best place for hybrid or all electric/PHEV is the large truck segment. Especially this time of year when Amazon vans are more common on the streets than an F-150 truck. Get stuck behind some of the older delivery trucks and the exhaust fumes are at time intolerable.
Nobody in the rite state of mind can deny climate change any more. It’s time we all do what we can (and then some) to change what’s going on. The best place to start for motor vehicles is the large truck and delivery van category. I’ve never understood why manufacturers were concentrating on cars like the Prius and making the most fuel efficient segment more efficient instead of going to the largest fuel users and making them much more efficient.
Bottom line? I’m really happy these all electric delivery trucks are coming out. Huge reduction in C02, noise and hopefully it will help drive fuel prices lower.
Delivery vans might help more than say, trading a Sonic for a Bolt but the best way that nobody talks about to reduce carbon emissions is to revert to national economies and dispense with the insane “Global Economy” model that has developed in the last 25 years.
There was a time when the US made their toasters and radios and fly swatters and the UK made all those things locally for their people. In Spain and in Brazil, there were factories across the landscape supplying products to support the daily life of Spaniards and Brazilians. The Spaniards toasted their bread with a Moulinex. Back in America though, it was a Toastmaster crafted in Illinois which made the breakfast for US families.
Somewhere along the way someone decided it would be better to outsource all that to low-wage countries and primarily to China. The problem is China is a long way from the US, from the UK and from Spain and Brazil. So everything gets shipped across the oceans. Every day these behemoth container ships ply the seas, loaded to the brim with goods. From China to America, back to China, then back to America and on and on it goes. It repeats across the globe. Ships crisscrossing the seas taking toasters to faraway places.
Just one of these container ships is estimated to produce the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars. The emissions released into the atmosphere from just 15 of these great ships match those from every single car in the world. If the shipping industry were a country, it would be on par with Germany and Japan as the sixth-largest contributor to greenhouse emissions. And for what? So that we can decimate local towns and communities that used to produce the toasters for America and instead buy one from China for $18.00 less because their labor is cheaper. Really? We’re destroying our own society and destroying our planet with pollution to save money on toasters and everything else? The cost of that savings is simply too high.
Instead of worrying about delivery vans and the family car, why don’t we worry about where the product that delivery van just dropped off actually came from? If it was half-way around the world, massive amounts of pollution were spewed into the environment bringing it to you and, further, if it came from China, they don’t have the same environmental regulations at their factories as in the US so you caused double damage.
There is no good reason for all this. We need to open our eyes and start placing the blame where it belongs. It’s not the family Buick with its ICE killing the planet, it’s the fact that the family’s Buick was imported from China and so was everything else in their home. For many products, there are still US made alternatives. Buy them!
Ci2Eye: For the first few sentences of your post, you had me as lost as could be. But I kept reading in interest and by around the 4th sentence it all started to become clear what you were saying. I agree with you more than anyone could know. I feel the exact same way, but I’ve never gone into that detail like you just did (because I didn’t think I could have gotten my point over very well or others may not have understood my point??). Our country has become so dependent on just buying stuff. We need more and more. Yes, I’m including myself sadly, although I do live a fairly minimal life compared to many. It greatly saddens me that all this stuff is happening, but how do we change it? How do we even begin to make any substantial change? I can only hope that things begin to change on exactly what you pointed out so well.
But for now, this is a great start along with short-run semi’s turning electric. Again, as long as we are using renewable sources to power our electric transporters.
We used to have a thriving furniture industry in America. From towns like Stanleytown, Virginia and Thomasville, North Carolina, the nation’s furniture needs were supplied. American homes were filled with Stanley Furniture and Thomasville Furniture and so many other brands. These towns supplied jobs to the community and the money from those jobs kept those small towns thriving.
Today those two furniture factory towns are shut down. The furniture is shipped in from China and Vietnam instead. Furniture is pretty big. It takes space on ships to move it from Asia to North America. Every ship that makes a journey across the sea filled with dressers and Dinning room tables is spewing out inordinate amounts of pollution and because these ships traverse international waterways, there is no regulation. There isn’t an EPA setting standards for the Atlantic. It’s the total Wild West and yet, nobody notices. We’re buying everything from China and shipping it on a horribly dirty 220,000 ton vessel but then worrying about whether our neighbor’s leaf blower is clean enough.
Why can’t we make our own furniture again? Actually lots of American companies still do but they often struggle because even the greenest people in the country with solar panels on their roof and a Tesla in the garage don’t buy it because it costs more.
America and the planet are paying a high price for cheap goods.
Don’t forget about government regulations. The silent killer. There are so many useless, dumb, expensive, time consuming, job killing government regulations to build and produce in this country. It’s far easier to go off shore. You could produce and sell for years (in many cases) before you would ever get your building up in many of our states.
Notice, I am not saying ALL regulation is bad, but what we have today is insane.
And that, my friends, is why Economics 101 should be required in all high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the U.S. Comparative advantage – look it up.
People aren’t denying climate change people are saying there is no proof that what they claim is changing the climate is true. I mean there is no scientific evidence to back any of it up.
Alan, yes there is proof of it. But I’m not getting into that now. What you said is very much so a climate change denier.
Totally agree with the elephant in the room issue, all those huge ships polluting the planet that nobody talks about. Hydrogen is the way to go for the big stuff like ships, trucks & trains, forget about batteries. Also agree on the fact that we import to much, lets get back to made in the United States. My company still manufacture crankshafts right here in California!
David. Totally agree and let’s start with stopping all import brand cars being shipped to the USA. Period. That will be a good start and then let’s begin working down the line of everything else. Then regulate the heck out of shipping vessels and the rest to where it’s impossible for them to make money shipping everything from foreign countries while sending billions of our dollars overseas. I’m 1000% for building in the USA and buying USA products.
So how many of these roaches did they actually deliver 3?
You do realize you are talking about being built in America and buying American on an article about a Canadian made vehicle. Also wind and solar are likely not the answer in the current state. Nuclear is by far the cleanest and best energy available thus far, Solar is making gains and wind is terrible as a source. The biggest problem is the storage of the energy of wind and solar.
1ship = pollution of 50,000,000 cars? Where did that big lie come from?
I agree that these ships pollute, but let’s use accurate numbers. Misinformation like this just damages the credibility of our environmental argument.
https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-shipping-containers-and-freight-trucks-cause-b358cb034c70
First article I googled came up with the same.
I gots an idea!You are going to need a truck mounted supercharger.”The firm’s truck-mounted chargers run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen or a mixture of the two and do not need to be connected to a power grid. They take 5-7 minutes to charge 80% of an electric vehicle’s battery, Dmitry Lashin said in an interview.”
My idea again! “GM is planning for multiple Hydrotec-based power generators. These will include a mobile power generator to provide fast-charge capability for EVs, the Empower rapid charger to help retail fuel stations, and a palletized mobile power generator to power military camps and installations.”
Have I ever told you about my high temperature superconducting truck I have appropriately nicknamed the Nitro Turbodyne Phantom 309?
It will even have CPU heat energy recovery,airbrakes and an airhorn and I’ll be yankin’ a Cryometrix refer.
It will even have CPU heat energy recovery,airbrakes and an airhorn and I’ll be yankin’ a Cryometrix refer.
The CB40 TRU is a potential match for Tesla semi trucks but we don’t have Tesla semi trucks and they are a piece of sh#t anyway.”The Cryometrix CB-40 TRU is a pollution free refrigeration alternative to diesel-powered systems for transport trailers. The CB-40 uses a patented self-contained liquid nitrogen cooling system to achieve consistent temperature control with almost no moving parts, no noise and superior reliability.”