General Motors will begin production of its BrightDrop Zevo utility vans at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario in December, the automaker confirmed this week.
GM is currently performing renovation and retooling work at the CAMI facility as part of a $2 billion investment in its Ontario manufacturing operations that also brought Chevy Silverado production to the GM Oshawa Assembly plant, which is located just east of Toronto. Once up and running, the CAMI plant will be capable of producing up to 30,000 vehicles annually between the BrightDrop Zevo 600 and smaller BrightDrop Zevo 400. GM said previously that the CAMI plant will also have the ability to nearly double its production output of the two utility vans by mid-decade.
The BrightDrop Zevo 600 is currently being built at a facility in Michigan by a German supplier called Kuka AG, which GM contracted to build the initial 500-unit run of vehicles while it renovated and retooled the CAMI plant. All 500 of these early production models will be delivered to American logistics giant FedEx. Other customers that have signed on to receive BrightDrop vans in the future include Verizon, Merchants Fleet and Walmart.
The BrightDrop Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 ride on a dedicated EV architecture and tap GM’s Ultium model battery design and Ultium drive motor technology. The dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version of the Zevo 600 has an estimated range of around 250 miles and boasts 600 cubic feet of cargo space at a GVWR of less than 10,000 pounds. It will eventually also launch in a single motor front-wheel-drive configuration. The Zevo 400 utilizes the same platform and powertrain technology but has a shorter wheelbase of just over 150 inches, compared to the Zevo 600’s length of 290 inches.
The GM CAMI assembly plant is a two million-square-foot facility that employs approximately 2002 workers in total. It most recently produced the Chevy Equinox before shifting to retooling and renovation work to prepare for the arrival of the Zevo lineup.
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