General Motors has announced that it will move its all-electric BrightDrop commercial vans under the Chevrolet brand. The change takes effect for the 2025 model year. Back in March, GM Authority was the first to suggest that it was only a matter of time before BrightDrop was folded into Chevy.
“With the addition of BrightDrop to the Chevrolet lineup, we are combining advanced EV technology with the dependability and widespread accessibility that only Chevrolet can offer,” said Chevy vice president Scott Bell. “This move strengthens our EV offerings and reaffirms our role as a leading commercial brand that enables businesses large and small to get work done.”
GM frames the move as an expansion to the Chevy EV portfolio, while providing customers with “access to one of the industry’s largest and most extensive commercial sales and service networks,” all while simultaneously enhancing brand growth opportunities.
BrightDrop was previously a wholly owned GM subsidiary. However, late last year, the company was fully integrated with GM as part of the GM Envolve commercial sales division. The integration coincided with the departure of company CEO Travis Katz. The all-electric commercial brand was initially introduced in January of 2021 at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Among the products on offer is the Zevo 400 and 600 (now rebranded as the Chevy BrightDrop 400 and 600), which serve as all-electric delivery vans utilizing GM Ultium battery and GM Ultium Drive motor technology for upwards of 272 miles of range per charge, as well as an array of advanced driver features to enhance safety and efficiency, such as Front and Rear Park Assist, Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, and more.
Vehicle production will continue to take place at the GM CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Canada. As GM Authority covered previously, the start of regular production for the 2025-model-year delivery vans is underway now.
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Comments
These should be the new USPS vehicles.
Sorry GMC No van for you
I would have thought GMC.
They’ll get them too once the dealer network complains.
Nothing to complain about at GMC. These vans are a pretty dim idea.
Is there really a difference? Most GM dealers I see these days carry all the GM brands and if they don’t have it on the lot, they can bring it from another dealer who does. The big change here seems to be that it’s now available at dealers instead of direct to customer.
Chevrolet dealers would rather have Express Vans.
Is gm obligated to use franchised dealers for new brands? Why not go direct-to-buyer with this brand, especially for fleet products like this?
Wasn’t BrightDrop direct to buyers (fleet)? They’ve only moved 746 units in first 6 months of this year so they weren’t getting the job done.
If anybody can move these vans, Chevrolet dealers can. Widespread availability but now Chevy dealers will be getting part of the margin which gm was hoping to avoid with BrightDrop.
Would be cool to do an RV conversion on one. I know there is a company that was proposing that, but don’t know if they ever made it off the ground.
They would need more range as an RV though.
There is a small company called SolarRolla that will outfit EVs as campers and add solar panels for getting some charge while parked.
I’m sure if you bought a BrightDrop as a donor vehicle they would love to try.
I see great potential for EVs in this space. A company like UPS has a fleet that all return to a central location each night to be reloaded for the next day. They can easily also be recharged. Then they utilize a fixed route the next day that is highly predicable. They never have to worry about finding a charging station or waiting to recharge.
This is a much better use of EVs than for consumers that have so many variables in their day or week which make EVs impractical. If our government wants to push EVs on anybody, and I really wish they wouldn’t, it makes more sense to push them on companies that are doing deliveries.
Smart to make it a commercial Chevy. More dealers and cheaper to market.
Not a GMC as this is a Commercial model and more Chevy dealers.
This is a good segment for EV models.
Most dealers working with them will be strong in commercial sales.
Good news! Now drop a Duramax diesel in it and we are good to go.
lol. What is it with dieselheads always telling us that diesel is the answer to everything?
It’s good news that Chevy will have a “bread truck” step van to sell. But I agree with Mel, there needs to be an ICE option. It should be easy enough to drop the short version on a half ton Silverado chassis and the extended body on an HD chassis. Come on GM put those engineers to work.
This body would make a great RV conversion, if there’s an ICE option.
I wonder what ‘Pie in the Sky’ vision Ms. Barra had to make them a separate Division….. I wonder how many $millions they’ll spend on the conversion over to chevy dealerships.
Ford E-transits seem to do well enough with the FORD moniker.
7672 E-Transit units sold in calendar 2023, v. 40,660 Express vans in the same timeframe. Ford sold 121,337 Transits in 2023. I cannot verify the Transit figure is for gas only, or if it includes the electric version. Either way, EV van sales remain paltry. I am going to predict Bright Drop vans will not sell any better wearing bowties. They have too limited a use case.
Hey that’s a much higher percentage than cars.