Brightdrop Has Been Fully Absorbed Into GM. What Does This Mean?

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In a recent press release, GM and Brightdrop announced that Brightdrop will become part of GM. But, as far as most people know, Brightdrop was already a GM company. So, what does that even mean? In this article, I will explain more about what this step is and what it means for the future of GM.

Brightdrop Was A “Startup” Owned By GM

In short, GM owned Brightdrop, but it wasn’t a typical GM division like, say, Chevrolet or Cadillac. BrightDrop started in the GM Innovation Lab, and then grew into a wholly owned subsidiary. According to the company, the structure allowed BrightDrop to work with the agility and innovation of a technology startup (because it was more independent), but it also had the advantage of access to GM’s deep manufacturing expertise, and perhaps most importantly, the book of GM check.

Other incumbent automakers have done similar things. For example, Ford’s first electric cars started in a loosely held thought lab, which later became the Ford Model E in Ford’s current plan to transition to electrification (the other parts of the Ford company are the Ford Pro and Ford Blue).

I’ll discuss this further down, but long story short, this idea doesn’t seem to be working as well as originally hoped. The company now thinks that moving Brightdrop to the main house is a better idea. This could enable better service for fleets through GM’s Envolve business services division, while what Brightdrop currently does with software could work well as part of GM’s core software efforts (especially as Ultium continues).

This doesn’t mean that Brightdrop will be another GM title, though. The company’s press release makes it clear that the things Brightdrop envisioned will affect GM, too. Bringing them into the GM mansion means they’ll be part of the GM family, but adding someone to the family always means the family changes, too.

Tesla’s Silicon Valley Myths Could Be Just That: Myths

The most important thing I learned from Edward Niedermeyer’s book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors is that the EV world needs all companies to walk a tightrope. Although many Tesla followers dismiss the book (without reading it) as a book that sheds light on Tesla, it did have some praise for the company. Incumbent automakers have always been moving slowly but steadily, and making a big shift like going EV is a challenge for them. So, being more agile is a big deal.

On the other hand, “move fast and break things” is not a good way to run a big car company. The book tells the story of a former Tesla employee who tried to get a job at Toyota. In an interview, he told Toyota executives about his prowess in fixing problems on the assembly line to keep production going, but this did not appeal to the people at Toyota because their employer would see the need for that prowess as a big problem in itself. .

This is not to say that Brightdrop did things the way Tesla did, driving the company on a knife edge for innovation and speed. But, the broader idea that EVs can only be made by start-up companies while the big “legacy” car companies can’t is clearly not the reality we’ve been led to think.

Initially, it may be a good idea to start an EV operation as a startup, but like Tesla, it must grow if it is to become a major player. Just like other companies, the startup model is a good way to start, but it is a difficult way to compete in the big market.

Featured image by Brightdrop/GM.