GM is reorganizing the BrightDrop EV division, the business title to depart

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By Joseph White

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors said on Thursday it was restructuring its BrightDrop electric commercial vehicle division to make it less independent and cut costs, and that the division’s chief, Travis Katz, would be leaving.

GM said CEO Katz is leaving at an unspecified date, but did not elaborate on the reason for his departure.

GM said BrightDrop, the division it launched in early 2021, will no longer operate separately from the parent company. When it first launched, officials talked about BrightDrop as a startup within GM that had the freedom to operate.

Now, its teams will be fully integrated into GM, “so our work is even better,” it said.

“Bringing BrightDrop fully into GM marks the beginning of a new chapter,” GM said in a blog post.

San Francisco-based Trucks Venture Capital managing partner Reilly Brennan wasn’t surprised by the move.

“Brightdrop was created when the public markets were very interested in new EV manufacturers,” he said. “Now that the market no longer has such a need, it makes sense that Brightdrop would be folded into GM’s core.”

In October 2021, GM said it expects BrightDrop’s revenue to top $10 billion by 2030 with margins of less than 20%.

GM said it remains committed to building production of BrightDrop Zevo pickup trucks, which are expected to resume next year and will be supported by the launch of a new battery module operation at the Ingersoll plant.

BrightDrop stopped working at the Ingersoll plant in October because of delays in the delivery of the battery modules that power the cars.

Katz, a longtime technology entrepreneur who joined GM in 2020 from venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March 2021, he described himself as “an unusual person to find in the automotive world” and said GM gave him “a lot of freedom” to set pricing and business strategy.

(Reporting by Joe White, Ben Klayman, David Shepardson and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Cynthia Osterman, Tom Hogue and Daniel Wallis)