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General Motors is abandoning its BrightDrop electric delivery vans, just four years after introducing the vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n The company announced<\/a> Tuesday alongside third-quarter earnings that it made the decision because the \u201ccommercial electric delivery van market developed much slower than expected.\u201d GM also blames the \u201cchanging regulatory environment and the elimination of tax credits in the United States\u201d \u2014 the result of the second Trump administration\u2019s hostility toward EVs.<\/p>\n BrightDrop production has been suspended at GM\u2019s CAMI Assembly facility in Ontario, Canada, since May, when the company also cut 500 jobs<\/a>. GM said Tuesday that it needs to have \u201cmeaningful discussions\u201d with government leaders in Canada about \u201copportunities\u201d for the plant. In the meantime, GM told TechCrunch that BrightDrop dealers will \u201ccontinue to sell and service vehicles as we work through remaining inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision to kill off BrightDrop comes at an odd moment for electric vehicles in the United States. Companies like GM set new EV sales records in the third quarter, though that enthusiasm was driven in part by the expiration of the federal tax credit, which Republicans in Congress decided to end.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, major automakers like GM have spent much of the last year walking back once-lofty promises about how many EVs they plan to make and sell in the coming years. GM, which once pledged to have a fully electric fleet by 2035<\/a>, boasted on Tuesday that it is \u201cwell positioned to meet strong, sustained demand\u201d for internal combustion vehicles. (Investors have rewarded that decision. GM\u2019s stock price is up 14% at the time of publish.)<\/p>\n BrightDrop\u2019s short existence has been chaotic. GM revealed the program<\/a> as a pseudo-startup in 2021. The automaker created BrightDrop in its \u201cGlobal Innovation\u201d organization (which is where OnStar was built) and spun it out as a privately held company.<\/p>\n BrightDrop launched at the Consumer Electronics Show that year. The automaker touted a lower total cost of ownership and less frequent maintenance as advantages over its internal combustion counterparts. BrightDrop vans seemed poised to quickly take advantage of the fact that major companies like FedEx were pushing to go carbon-neutral and emissions-free. BrightDrop also came into existence at a time when the pandemic was fueling a huge e-commerce surge, upping the need for delivery vans.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Just two years later, GM absorbed<\/a> BrightDrop into its overall fleet business, GM Envolve. The unit\u2019s CEO, Travis Katz, stepped down. Some of the vans started catching fire<\/a>, sparking a recall in early 2024. Then GM moved BrightDrop again, this time to within Chevrolet\u2019s commercial division<\/a>. The automaker continued to struggle to sell BrightDrop vans this year, barely topping 1,500 sold in the first half<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear why, exactly, GM struggled so mightily to sell its BrightDrop vans. And while there were plenty of indicators the unit was struggling, the decision appears to have come somewhat abruptly. Earlier this month, GM Envolve vice president Ian Hucker was touting BrightDrop\u2019s vans in a press release about a partnership with delivery driver organization Frontdoor Collective and infrastructure company Circuit EV. That partnership is supposed to provide 50 BrightDrop vans for Target to use in the Dallas-Fort Worth area<\/a>.<\/p>\n GM isn\u2019t alone. Sales of Ford\u2019s E-Transit van are well below where they were in 2024. But Rivian has put more than 25,000 electric vans<\/a> on the road with Amazon over the last few years. And Los Angeles-based startup Harbinger has sold more than 200 of its electric truck chassis<\/a> since starting production in April<\/a>. On Tuesday morning, Harbinger also announced it is expanding sales to Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n