MT Magazine July/August 2023

FEATURE STORY

JULY/AUGUST 2023

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to say, “Our need for reliable, sustainable transportation has never been more important. BrightDrop is a perfect example of the innovations we are adopting to transform our company as time-definite express transportation continues to grow.” FedEx was the first customer for the electric delivery vans. The Demand The first five of what was then an order for 500 vans were delivered to FedEx by Dec. 21, 2021. (By June 2022 there were 145 more delivered.) And there have been plenty more multiple vehicle orders from companies, including Walmart, DHL, and Merchants Fleet. There are now over 25,000 ordered on the books. To accommodate the demand, GM invested some $800 million to retool its CAMI production facility in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, which had been producing Chevrolet Equinoxes prior to the BrightDrop vans. The Development BrightDrop’s Matt Armstrong says the development of the Zevo 600 (the first of the delivery vans, with the smaller Zevo 400 launching in 2024) was predicated on people from the GM Global Innovation organization and design staff being essentially embedded with drivers from companies, including FedEx, to see what their days were like. GM didn’t want to make just another step van but something that was a marked improvement. The electric technology contributes greatly. For example, typically, delivery drivers get in and out of their vehicles over 100 times a day. The Ultium battery platform is placed low so the step-in height is lowered, making it easier on drivers’ knees. They designed the seat not only for comfort, but to facilitate ingress and egress. The typical lever to set the parking brake is replaced by a push-button. Cargo lights in the storage area (over 600 cubic feet and a payload capacity of about 2,200 pounds) are turned on and off by motion sensors.

The Parts Bin Notably, the BrightDrop vans are the fastest-built vehicles – from concept to market – in GM’s history. Twenty months. Part of that, Armstrong explains, is predicated on the Zevo engineers being able to take advantage of the learnings from another large electric vehicle that was being developed at the time, the GMC Hummer EV. What’s more, while there is sometimes criticism leveled at companies like GM for using the “parts bin” in developing vehicles (i.e., using the same components in a Chevy as in a Cadillac, for example), Armstrong notes that the GM parts bin provided BrightDrop with an advantage because the parts bin contributes things from the steering wheel to push-buttons to the Zevo 600, thereby keeping down costs. The Outlook While the uptake of electric vehicles by consumers in the United States remains to be determined, Armstrong says they see a huge opportunity going forward with electric delivery vans for several reasons. For one thing, fleet operators are looking at total lifecycle costs, and BrightDrop calculates that in terms of maintenance and fuel costs, the Zevo 600 can save over $10,000 per year compared to a comparable diesel-powered vehicle.

For another, companies like FedEx have publicly committed to transforming their pickup and delivery fleets to all-electric vehicles (in FedEx’s case, it intends to do so by 2040). So, we go back to the start of this: In mid-April, after the U.S. Treasury announced its guidance regarding the critical mineral and battery component requirements as related to the Inflation Reduction Act, GM announced: “Fleet customers including for BrightDrop and the Chevrolet Silverado EV will benefit from the $7,500 commercial incentive.” The transportation transformation has a lot to do with what the U.S. government is doing.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact Gary at vasilash@gmail.com.