Amazon.com is testing General Motors’ Chevrolet BrightDrop electric van, marking a significant potential client for the struggling Canadian-produced electric vans.
Amazon is testing a fleet of electric vehicles for its business, Bloomberg News first reported Sept. 12, with BrightDrop among those produced by Rivian and GM’s crosstown rival Ford Motor Co.
GM confirmed for the Free Press that the automaker sold 12 BrightDrop vehicles to Amazon in 2023. Amazon reportedly promised to have 100,000 electric delivery vehicles delivering its packages within the next five years, and to reach net-zero carbon across its global operations by 2040.
“We sell Chevrolet BrightDrop vans to large global brands, rental companies and local service providers. Logistics companies often rent Chevrolet BrightDrops from our customers to meet increased, seasonal demand,” GM spokesman Sabin Blake said Sept. 12 in an emailed statement. “GM has remained committed to Chevrolet BrightDrop including an expanded dealer network, helping to increase visibility to small business customers.”
BrightDrop’s commercial customers have included Walmart, Hertz, FedEx, Merchants Fleet and Verizon.
GM produces the Chevrolet BrightDrop at its CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, in Canada. Workers at CAMI Assembly are represented by Unifor Local 88.
Mike Van Boekel, the local’s plant chairperson, said landing a customer like Amazon would be “great news.”
“That’s a potentially big customer,” Van Boekel told the Free Press. “Those are the kinds of customers we need to attract.”
Van Boekel added that sales of BrightDrop have jumped over the past few months. About 90% of BrightDrop vans are sold in the U.S., he said.
Production shutdowns, layoffs
BrightDrop’s struggles come less than a year after GM folded the commercial vans into its Chevrolet brand in a bid to boost its performance as GM tries to gain ground against competitors, including Ford and Rivian, in the electric van space.
Unifor said on April 11 that GM informed the union that CAMI Assembly would initiate temporary layoffs starting April 14 with workers returning in May for limited production. After that, production would temporarily cease with operations idling until October 2025 in order to complete retooling work to prepare the facility for production of the 2026 model year.
After production resumed, Unifor said the plant would operate on a single shift for the foreseeable future — a reduction expected to result in the indefinite layoff of nearly 500 workers.
Unifor Local 88 represents more than 1,200 workers at the CAMI Assembly Plant, where GM began BrightDrop production in early 2023.
Production of the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric vans, launched in 2021, halted in April, as a glut of vehicles began piling up on both sides of the border, as the Detroit Free Press first reported in March.
GM also told the Free Press in an email on Sept. 4 that CAMI will resume BrightDrop production on Nov. 17. Battery pack production at the plant will remain paused, however, as the automaker has produced a sufficient supply to meet immediate production plans, the company also said.
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Amazon testing Chevrolet BrightDrop vans. What it means to struggling EV brand
Reporting by Jackie Charniga, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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