The General Motors brand BrightDrop is now also building electric delivery vans in Canada. Following the conversion of the plant to Ingersoll, the Zevo 600 will be manufactured there immediately and the Zevo 400 will also be manufactured from the end of 2023. BrightDrop will also introduce its Canadian launch customer: DHL Express Canada.
By 2025, production at Ingersoll is expected to reach 50,000 e-vans annually. Parent company GM took the initiative Renovation that started in early 2021 of the plant into a large-scale electric vehicle factory with an investment of about $800 million. The Ingersoll plant in Ontario is GM’s first Canadian electric vehicle plant. At the same time, the still young BrightDrop brand announced the start of commercial operations in Canada and presented its first Canadian customer, DHL Express Canada. However, the Americans do not say how many vehicles DHL will take there.
In June 2022, BrightDrop delivers the first 150 Zevo 600 (formerly EV600) e-delivery vans to FedEx in the USA delivered, is delivery part of a larger order Logistics experts about a total of 2,500 units of the Zevo 600 that are scheduled to be fleeted with FedEx over the next few years. In total, 30 customers in the United States engaged in queuing, including Walmart, Hertz and Verizon. “These and other companies have contributed to more than 25,000 production reservations and expressions of interest for BrightDrop electric delivery trucks,” the company said.
BrightDrop is now looking to generate demand in Canada as well. BrightDrop President and CEO Travis Katz said, “BrightDrop locating and starting production in Canada (…) is an important step in bringing EVs to scale while delivering real results for the world’s biggest brands. ” “Our international expansion is proof that we can give our customers exactly what they need, where they need it. The addition of DHL Express Canada as a new customer shows the confidence that big brands have in our ability to deliver.
BrightDrop has so far introduced two e-vans: the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400, formerly known as the EV600 and EV410. The vehicles were specifically designed for urban delivery traffic, with the Zevo 400 being smaller than the Zevo 600.
The following performance data for the latter are public: The 600 based on GM’s Ultium platform has a range of up to 400 km (original: 250 mi). With a maximum DC charging capacity of up to 120 kW, it can be recharged for a range of 170 miles (274 km) in one hour. GM specifies the size of the cargo area as 600 cubic feet (about 17 cubic meters). The total weight should be around 4.5 tons.
www.gobrightdrop.com, media.gm.ca
