EV Startup BrightDrop Officially Becomes Part of GM

Commercial vehicle startup BrightDrop is now part of General Motors as the automaker looks to strengthen its partnership with the company.

BrightDrop came to life at GM’s Innovation Lab and for the past three years, has been a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. This structure allowed it to operate as a technology startup while having access to GM’s manufacturing expertise. Moving forward, it will no longer operate as a subsidiary of GM but instead become part of it. The automaker says this will benefit fleet customers and give them access to a single contract point through GM Envolve.

In the three short years since its inception, BrightDrop has launched the Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 electric delivery vehicles to customers including FedEx, Ryder, and DHL. The merger with GM will also bring BrightDrop Core, the company’s digital business solutions business, into GM’s pre-existing software and services organization.

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“As BrightDrop has matured, we’re now bringing that ethos back to GM so that our work can be better and so BrightDrop’s entrepreneurial spirit can help make it more successful with GM’s commercial customers,” GM said in a statement.

GM initially expects to increase production of Zevo’s BrightDrop models starting in the spring of 2024 when the company completes the conversion of its CAMI Assembly site in Canada to a site dedicated to the production of all electric commercial vehicles.

The Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 from BrightDrop are based on GM’s Ultium platform and each offer approximately 400 cubic feet (16,990 liters) and 600 cubic feet of cargo space, respectively. The company expects to be building about 50,000 electric cars a year by 2025 on the CAMI Summit website.