Commercial electric vehicle startup BrightDrop is now becoming a part of General Motors as the car manufacturer looks to tighten its integration with the company.
BrightDrop came to life in GM’s Innovation Lab and for the last three years, has been a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. This structure allowed it to operate like a tech startup while having access to the manufacturing expertise of GM. Moving forward, it will no longer operate as a subsidiary of GM but rather become part of it. The car manufacturer says this will benefit fleet customers and provide them access to a single point of contract through GM Envolve.
In the three short years since its formation, BrightDrop has launched the Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 electric delivery vans for customers including FedEx, Ryder, and DHL. The incorporation into GM will also bring BrightDrop Core, the company’s commercial digital solutions business, into GM’s pre-existing software and services organization.
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“As BrightDrop has matured, we are now bringing that ethos back to GM so our work is more efficient and so BrightDrop’s startup spirit can help fuel further success with GM’s commercial customers,” GM said in a statement.
GM will initially look to scale production of BrightDrop’s Zevo models from the spring of 2024 as the firm completes the conversion of its CAMI Assembly site in Canada into a site dedicated to all-electric commercial delivery vehicle production.
Both the Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 from BrightDrop are based on GM’s Ultium platform and each offer roughly 400 cubic feet (16,990 liters) and 600 cubic feet of cargo space respectively. The company expects to be building around 50,000 electric vans per year by 2025 at the CAMI Assembly site.
