Here at The Autopian, we’re huge fans of the Chevrolet BrightDrop. Not only is it surprisingly easy and comfortable to drive, the idea of an electric delivery van making neighborhoods quieter and saving fuel that we can then use in cars built in countries that don’t technically exist anymore sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately, we aren’t going to see a ton more units on the roads soon, because GM’s temporarily laid off the entire plant.
See, all BrightDrop vans are built in the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, which is in Canada. The same plant that turned out hits like the Chevrolet Tracker and Geo Metro, for anyone keeping track. Unfortunately, it might be too big of a plant to sustain consistent production, because sales of the van have been rather low.
Through the first quarter of the year, GM sold a total of 292 Chevrolet BrightDrop vans in North America. No, I’m not missing any zeroes, that’s genuinely how few made it to fleet customers’ hands. While the BrightDrop has been subject to Ultium platform teething issues in the past, those were largely resolved ages ago, so it seems that low sales are a result of consumer demand.
So why are things working out like this? Well, Automotive News Canada reports that fleets would have to buy roughly 1,000 BrightDrop vans per month for just one production shift to be sustainable, and last I checked, 292 is a long way from 1,000. Citing this shortfall, GM has decided to start temporary layoffs at CAMI on Monday, with more than 1,200 workers affected. Although limited production will temporarily pick back up in May, the plant will then close once again until October. As a result, 500 workers are being laid off indefinitely, with only 700 expected to be called back in October.
That’s a depressing announcement, and the sad vibes extend to official communications. In a media release, Unifor Local 88 CAMI Plant Chairperson Mike Van Boekel said, “Global demand for last-mile delivery vehicles is only growing. Our members have the skill, the experience, and the pride to build world-class electric vehicles right here in Canada — all we need is the opportunity to keep doing it.”
The Chevrolet BrightDrop is a great van, it just needs more buyers. Part of this falls on GM’s initial strategy of only selling to large fleets rather than smaller businesses, and the company really needs to open up sales to retail customers. However, beyond that, people will have to actually want to buy BrightDrop vans, and the slow demand seems somewhat puzzling considering how ideal EVs are for last-mile delivery use.
Top graphic image: GM
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I hadn’t put together that these were made at the same plant that made my Geo Tracker! Maybe I’ll have to attempt getting a pic with them together, or visit the plant with the Tracker if I’m ever in that part of the province
This why I love this site. Pure truth. I have seen over a dozen stories blaming Trump and his Tariffs for the cuts despite everything happened before hand.
Last quarter Trump was already president, and he immediately made clear he was going to do all he could to undermine electric vehicle sales and use. That would make any perspective buyer think twice.
I’m surprised he hasn’t declared that buying an EV is some sort of “DEI” offense, punishable by a secret flight to El Salvador. MAGA GOP policy calls for only gasoline powered vehicles. Preferably white…. very white. (Tesla is the exception, because Musk bribed the right people and shares the reich beliefs).
The last two E-Transits I sold were to a local university at a humongous discount. Before them, it was around 2 years ago that I last sold a retail electric van.
Although they are a great option for those who don’t drive a lot of daily miles, they’re still an incredibly hard sell, and we’ve stopped stocking them.
This isn’t just a GM problem, even if they excel at shooting themselves in the foot.
I was under the (mistaken?) impression that individuals (including small businesses) COULD buy Brightdrop vans… didn’t we read an article about them (or maybe it was a Youtube video) that recounted how some vans were being discounted well below MSRP? Or did you mean to emphasize that GM isn’t aggressively marketing the vans to retail buyers, small businesses, weirdos like me, and such?
A bigger problem right now may be that the package delivery system is broken.
That may be relevant to selling delivery trucks.
Why are contractors so poorly paid that I was able to hire one and pay more than Amazon did?
I already don’t bother having packages shipped to my actual address.
My last Amazon package was delayed, then listed as refused at 3 AM by me!
Still waiting for a refund.
Tracking information is now clearly a weak work of fiction.
Current package is fast tracked from New York, so a slightly different system and not from Amazon.
We’ll see.
I started using locker or store deliveries for Amazon, as it proved impossible to get deliveries from them at my last address.
The delivery system seems broken in the sense that it seems mind boggling to me that you’ll get USPS, UPS, two different FedEx Ground trucks, Prime, and then a rogue DHL van or LaserShip rusted out Civic all coming down everyones street every single day.
I can’t recall the last time an actual delivery truck from the shipper made the scene.
Since I moved, and years before that, every delivery got shunted to the post office.
Some contractors for Amazon have marked trucks, but UPS doesn’t do that.
In this rural area, I have seen a UPS truck once, not at my place, and an Amazon truck blocking the road completely, both in the last month.
Final delivery always seems shunted to the post office, even admitted by the other shippers.
I’m getting more stuff by USPS only now, as sellers realize it ends up with them anyway.
My delivery is due today.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Today’s box arrived by FedEx sometime today, so on time, and by an actual FedEx vehicle.
Both firsts here.
Tracking did not show it was handled by FedEx until this morning.
I was notified by the neighbor, NOT tracking, which still says out for delivery.
Still better than Amazon’s failure to deliver at all or offer a reasonable explanation.
So maybe faster delivery buys something?
I saw one of these on a dealer lot, front and center on the corner at the main road, driving home yesterday from Charleston. Took me an extra moment to realize what it was and why there was a giant white box taking up such precious space on the lot out front.
Now reading this, kind of surprises me if its fleet only to be at a random lot in the middle of the country side
Seems like a good candidate for small camper conversions. Hell I could build a high bunk and put my dirt bike underneath it like what’s been done with so many sprinters.
Grounded RVs has you covered
The other challenge, now, is that Rivian is selling its vans to companies other than Amazon. Rivian has a much more robust track record, so “playing it safe” works against GM’s much thinner track record.
This whole thing is just a classic GM fumble on so many levels.
Arguably, these Brightdrop vans are the direct successor to the Chevrolet/GMC Step/Value Van they sold from 1940 to 1998, so track record *shouldn’t* be an issue… Unfortunately, there is a 25 year gap of shenanigans where it seems they pulled away / spun off the step-van business (?) and of course let their Express/Savana lineup wither on the vine. Then, they come back as a gobbledygook tech startup with a weird fleet sales model, before pivoting back to Chevrolet.
Meanwhile? Competitors iterate their step vans and work vans, electrify as necessary, solidifying their relationships with the fleets who are the ONLY buyers of hyper-focused single-seat last mile delivery vans. Of course GM just expects the customers to flow in.
To cap it all off, these Brightdrop vans look ugly and dated. It’s like they just targeted building an electric version of their step van from ‘98 without considering building the best van they could. The Rivian is objectively a much better looking product, the interior appears to be a more pleasant place to spend time. For smaller businesses, the E transit is better value, and a much more versatile choice.
General Motors: Where we are our own worst enemy
Well the main issue is the production was set up for Canada and the USA. And with Crooked Trump imposing the automotive tariff (which is still in place) it caused demand in the USA to dry up.
FUCK YOU TRUMP. AND ANOTHER FUCK YOU TO TRUMP SUPPORTERS. AND FUCK YOU TO THOSE WHO ARE FRIENDS WITH TRUMP.
AND A SPECIAL FUCK YOU TO CANADIANS WHO ARE FRIENDS WITH TRUMP.
I’M LOOKING AT YOU WAYNE GRETZKY.
FUCKING MONEY GRUBBING TRAITOR.
Agree with your sentiments. But not with your vile language. Many 7 yr olds know how to read.
Well now those 7 year olds know what to say to Trump, his supporters and his friends…
Agreed, there are more intelligent ways to make an argument.
Watch your vile language young man! Fuckin’ hell….
Ok… I went back to my post, watched my language… okay now what?
:-p
Democrats CHOSE to elect Trump.
Then did it again.
Are you suffering from a concussion?
Perhaps Sam means that Dems ‘chose’ Trump by not running a viable candidate, or by not campaigning aggressively enough, or something like that? I’m sure Sam doesn’t mean to imply that any significant number of registered Democrats actually voted for Trump.
Like many people voting for Trump, I was a lifelong Democratic voter until they made it obvious they don’t care about voters, human rights, or democracy.
My politics haven’t changed, only the party has.
Gop has to come to grips with all the liberals now being in their party.
Culture shock for some.
I’m the same person I was when I was recruited twice to head the local Acorn.
I am really shocked anyone fell for a strategy entirely dependent on “Ugh! Trump bad!”
Am I the only person listening to Sanders interviews?
He seems to be the only person in the democratic milieu willing to recognize polical reality.
You cannot possibly be serious that the current GOP cares about democracy or human rights. That notion is pure, bad fiction.
Technically I suppose I’m suggesting the democratic campaign effectively communicated who they are, and that was great for Trump.
I think many registered Democrats and independents voted for Trump, more importantly, the new gop voters fleeing their old party will never return.
To paraphrase Sanders, “What the hell did you expect?”
He might just be disingenuous, stupid, or both.
I’ve seen them advertised for $48 k
with incentives. I just don’t know how many people are really looking for a BEV work. They seem like they would be good for the van life people especially with their modular battery and they seemed to be exploring that with CNC wood panels. Apparently you can use the battery as a house battery. It seems like the Chevy van guys are happy with their express you can’t really tell if it’s an 03 or 23. It does seem like it might peak some interest of some FedEx contractors. But it’s probably route dependent.
There’s a large Chevy dealer near me which had one of the short wheelbase ones hanging out on display in the front row for at least a few months. The price? 70K. Along with the e-Silverado and Hummer EV, I keep wondering how serious GM actually is about electrification. Maybe they’re keeping to the big fleet sales only narrative because they know actual small and medium sized businesses will never look that way.
One in San Jose for $56.110
https://www.google.com/local/dealership/2900653778435850147/cars/2G5ZJ2TY9S9106044?source=sh%2Fx%2Fuk%2Fm0%2F0&kgs=460ad76f2bb04469
There’s all these stories on how bad the bright drop is selling, but I can’t help but feel this is GMs falt, I have ties to the used commercial vehicle market, as a result I regularly see advertisements for new vehicles, up until January I didn’t even know these were really for sale, I’ve seen the etransit and the sprinter. And even now the few ads I’ve seen for the bright drop have been really vague, it’s competition often tells you the msrp or the dealer price right on the ad, all I know about the bright drop price is that it’s currently 9,000 off msrp, whatever the msrp currently is.
I had no idea they existed at all until I saw one pop up on a local dealer’s ad for about 50k. And they had several listed for around that price…
I saw one of these near me for the first time, it’s seemingly a contractor’s work van that they’re using to remodel a restaurant. Seems like a perfect use case for electric, able to lug around all the tools/lumber or whatever, sits parked most of the day, then drives back home. Wasn’t aware of the strange sales strategy, I hope they fix it and sell more
Explains why I’ve been receiving ads and emails offering these vans to me for $10k off MSRP.
I was going to say this the other day, but prematurely electrifying commercials vehicles is not going to work. They cannot worry about range. They cannot worry about AC or heat killing range. There’s a reason the USPS has used the same LLV for decades, it does it’s job reliably. Which is not the same as vehicle reliability. If an EVs range suffers by 25% because of AC/heat, it can’t reliably do it’s job. No amount of cost savings or EV social media clout or vehicular reliability will change the fact that it’s not going to be able to do it’s JOB reliably.
Commercial needs something that can do X things 100% of the time AND do it cheaply. And right now, that’s not an EV. They’re not cheap. Range is an issue no matter how repeatable the route is. The route isn’t what matters, the conditions of the route matter and that’s subject to a lot of things that cannot be controlled.
Now, my personal opinion, the WHOLE EV thing is a sham waste of money handout to rich people on all fronts.
Fuck off, it’s Friday.
Amazon’s Rivian vans seem to be working well, for them . . .
As Jim mentioned Amazon seems to be doing well with them. There is a delivery station not to far from me that was opened about the time they started taking delivery of the Rivians. It’s parking lot is 90% Rivans. Because I regularly drive the major roads that it is near I often see streams of them leaving and returning, I’ve yet to see one on the side of the road, so they seem to make the rounds with the real world range year round.
I see the Rivian/Amazon vans all the time now. Wonder what the price differential is? And if other fleets see the vans working so well for Amazon, why would they want to risk a low selling competitor?
I think MSRP-wise, the base Rivian van is just about $80K, while the base Brightdrop I think is about $73K, but Brightdrops are regularly advertised at about $10K off of MSRP, which I don’t think happens much with the Rivians. So, the price delta is $7-17K more or less.
I wonder if that’s if you just buy one or two. I’m sure Amazon must have gotten a bulk discount.
Especially since Amazon essentially fronted the money to pay for at least part of the tooling and production line set up costs via their investment in Rivan and committed to purchase 100k over several years.
FWIW, I worked part time as a courier for an organization, delivering intra-office mail throughout their locations, to put myself through college. The longest of the routes would be about 200km a day as I remember, most were about 150. That’s less than 75% of the Brightdrop’s range on the base battery. Yes, there will be use cases where it will not work, but there’s only so far you can travel in an 8 hour shift, especially at more urban speeds.
Anecdotally, these vans have been spotted around town this winter, out of charge and transferring cargo to a different van to get deliveries done. It’s probably a failure of the operators to factor in the range drop exacted by chilly northern Ontarian winters, and not really an engineering failure, but you’re right, there are some use cases where it won’t work (Or where it’ll require smarter planning and shorter routes)
It’s obviously a massive scheme to shift wealth and power to those with too much of both.
No other conclusion is possible.
But do the powers that be actually need electric vehicles to accomplish that? They’ve been doing that just fine for centuries before EVs existed, no? 😉
Part of the problem is their asinine decisions about the sales channel.
At least in Canada, you can’t just go to a Chevy dealership, give them money, and leave with a van. You have to sign up for their comprehensive electric fleet services subscription garbage.
No fucking thank you. When my company needed a new van, electric was clearly the right choice. But when I couldn’t even get a price quote from GM without going through their whole “fleet onboarding” bullshit, I went to a Ford dealership, gave them money, and left with an E-Transit.
Don’t try to reinvent what it means to buy a vehicle, GM. It’s not going to work.
Sounds like General Mismanagement.
This is exactly what happened to one of my vendors. They drive in a 35 mile radius and this van would have been perfect. Went to the local Chevy dealer and just got jerked around. The vendor stood up and said kiss my ass and walked out. Why is it that these companies put up obstacles for us to give them money.
Perhaps they have reasons for not wanting them out there?
This is the answer right here. From what I’ve read, sales of the electric Transit, ProMaster, and Sprinter have all been pretty decent, so GM only has to look at themselves for why theirs isn’t selling.
100% agreed. GM made a solid van, but are not willing to actually sell them. They are trying to force everyone into a strict plan, likely hedging their bets that if they need to pull the plug like the EV1 they have control. Not cool.
I have to assume that whoever made the sales decisions on the van also used their few remaining brain cells to also kill CarPlay and Android Auto.
If that’s all true, then that probably DOES explain why Brightdrops are selling so poorly. Any customer, but especially a business, wants to know the product (vehicle) they’re buying will be supported, but they don’t want to be coerced into paying for that support in advance whether they ever need it or not.