General Motors’ BrightDrop is making waves in the electric vehicle industry with its announcement that it has produced more than 500 Zevo 600 all-electric vans during the first quarter of 2023 at its CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada. What’s more, the first Canadian-built vehicles have already started shipping to customers just a few months after the manufacturing facility opened in December 2022. This is a significant milestone for BrightDrop, which initially produced a small number of vans in Michigan to jump-start the new brand.
To make this achievement possible, GM invested $800 million to convert the plant in Canada and prepare it for large-scale production of purpose-built electric vans at a volume of up to 50,000 units annually by 2025. The 2023 model year Zevo 600 model is already sold out, with deliveries beginning soon, and reservations for the 2024 model year have already opened, with deliveries expected by mid-year 2023. The smaller Zevo 400 model is expected to enter series production in late 2023.
See also: BrightDrop Zevo 600 and FedEx sets Guinness World Record with 258 miles on a single charge
One of the first customers to order BrightDrop’s Zevo 600 all-electric vans is Ryder, which plans to deploy model year 2023 vans in its rental fleet in California, Dallas-Fort Worth, and New York City later this year. The vans have a range of up to 250 miles (400 km) and can support a payload of about 2,000 to 3,400 lbs (Zevo 600’s cargo capacity of over 600 cubic feet and Zevo 400’s cargo capacity of over 400 cubic feet).
BrightDrop has already secured more than 30 commercial customers and framework agreements (non-binding) for thousands of vehicles in just two years. The number of reservations for the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 models has exceeded 25,000 and is expected to continue growing.
Overall, this is an exciting time for BrightDrop and the electric vehicle industry as a whole. With the successful production of its Zevo 600 all-electric vans and the opening of reservations for future models, BrightDrop is on track to revolutionize the commercial electric vehicle market.
