DETROIT – General Motors is folding its all-electric BrightDrop commercial vans into the Chevrolet brand in an attempt to increase sales, accessibility and recognition of the vehicles.
The change is expected to expand the selling and service points from a handful of dealers to Chevrolet’s large network of North American dealers, including more than 500 commercial-focused stores in the U.S., according to Sandor Piszar, vice president of the GM Envolve fleet business in North America.
“It’s got that strength of the Chevrolet brand behind it,” he told CNBC. “It’s absolutely going to drive volume. It helps our customers that choose to go into EVs to easily do so working with the Chevrolet dealer they know and trust now for their other fleet needs.”
The number of new dealers will be based on the amount that decide to opt in to selling and servicing the vans. To sell commercial EVs, dealers must have specific vehicle lifts, service bays and employee training, among other things.
GM declined to disclose the average cost for a dealer to become certified to sell the BrightDrop products, citing expenses will vary based on the store.
BrightDrop currently sells two all-electric commercial vans, called the Zevo 400 and Zevo 600, which are used for things such as package delivery. Starting later this year with the 2025 model year, those vans will be rebranded as Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 and 600 vans.
“Chevy’s our top-selling fleet brand for General Motors.” Piszar said. “This makes absolute perfect sense for GM Envolve and Chevrolet.”
The Thursday announcement is the latest change for BrightDrop, which GM launched in 2021 as a fully owned subsidiary before folding it into the company’s fleet business last year.
GM had high expectations of making BrightDrop into a new, lucrative growth business for the automaker, but sales and revenue are not believed to have met the company’s initial expectations.
BrightDrop was expected to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2023. GM declined to disclose BrightDrop’s revenue, but it’s highly unlikely the target was achieved.
The automaker only sold about 500 BrightDrop vans in 2023. GM reports BrightDrop’s sales through the first six months of 2024 were 746 units.
The vans are produced at GM’s CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.