When General Motors announced in late 2024 that it was shutting down the BrightDrop division, scattering the team, and letting their electric van program die on the vine, most observers called it a “portfolio simplification.” It wasn’t. It was one of the most self-sabotaging moves an American automaker has made in the EV era.
BrightDrop wasn’t a side hustle or a compliance vehicle. It wasn’t just another gas van with a battery and electric motor stuffed in there like some of the competition – it was a ground up EV with great range and charging performance. GM was already shipping units to FedEx, Walmart, and had them in stock at your local Chevy dealer for small business owners like you to buy. Then GM walked away.
There are three main reasons this was a huge mistake, and will have a real negative impact on the EV industry in the US.
Reason 1: The Brightdrop Was Literally the Perfect Vehicle for the Biggest Unserved EV Segment in America
Plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, appliance repair, auto-parts delivery, municipal fleets, and independent last-mile contractors run millions of cargo vans every day – almost all of them gasoline Ford Transits, Ram ProMasters, or the ancient Chevy Express.
That duty cycle is the single best use case for electrification on the planet:
- 80 – 150 miles per day, almost entirely stop-and-go
- Multiple short trips with long idles between calls
- Return-to-base every single night (perfect for overnight depot charging)
Real-world BrightDrop fleets were seeing operating costs fall from 35–45¢ per mile to 9–12¢ per mile. Employees never waste time at gas stations or worrying about fuel card fraud – just plug in at the shop when the shift ends. Regenerative braking makes brake jobs a once-a-decade event, and there are no oil changes, fuel filters, or transmission services.
Independent TCO studies (including GM’s own) showed payback in 24 – 36 months for almost any trade doing more than ~70 miles a day.
Reason 2: BrightDrop Was Converting an Entire Demographic That Still Thinks EVs are for Coastal Elites
The typical driver of a contractor or delivery van is not the early-adopter stereotype. They’re working-class men and women who have spent their lives in gas vans with big, thirsty engines. Put that same person in a BrightDrop for eight hours a day and the they’ll soon learn that EVs aren’t unreliable, underpowered, or inconvenient. They fall in love with one-pedal driving, instant torque, and only visiting gas stations for snacks.
These drivers were becoming accidental EV evangelists – and because these vans wore Chevrolet badges, the next time they shopped for a personal vehicle, the local Chevy dealer would probably be their first stop. GM has one of the broadest EV lineups in the industry – just under the Chevy brand, they offer vehicles from the affordable Bolt to the practical Equinox EV to the family size Blazer EV to the Silverado EV for the full-size truck guys. And of course, GM’s other brands like Cadillac and GMC have even more choices.
BrightDrop was the on-ramp for an entire blue-collar demographic. Early adopters and technology enthusiasts already have an EV – now we need “normal” people to buy them to continue sales growth.
Another thing to consider is that one of the largest barriers to adoption for EVs for your typical working-class people who live in apartments is the inability to charge at home. Workplace charging solves that problem. You can either offer charging as a perk to attract and retain employees without raising wages, or even charge for it if you want to at least break even on the electricity usage. Those chargers aren’t doing anything while the BrightDrops are on the road anyway, so you may as well let your employees plug in!
Reason 3: BrightDrop Was the Single Best Way to Achieve Real Ultium Economies of Scale
The promise and advantage of Ultium is modularity. The same software, battery cells, and power electronics go into the full range of vehicles, from the mainstream Equinox EV to the popular Honda Prologue to the stunning Escalade IQ… to the BrightDrop.
A single retail Blazer EV sale moves one battery pack and one or two drive units. A 500-unit fleet order for a Chevrolet BrightDrop moves 500 packs and either 500 or 1,000 drive units. And remember that EVs are basically computers on wheels. While software is a massive expense, it costs about the same to develop software for a single car as it does for a million cars.
Fleet sales have thinner margins at the time of sale, but they are pure volume gold for driving down the hardware and software cost of every EV GM sells.
Killing BrightDrop didn’t just abandon a vehicle segment; it deliberately slowed the cost-reduction curve on the entire Ultium platform at the exact moment GM needed every kilowatt-hour of scale it could get.
How the BrightDrop Stacks Up Against the Competition
Let’s stop pretending there was “no market for these vehicles.”
Amazon has already taken delivery of over 20,000 of Rivian vans (at the time of this writing in November 2025), and publicly states they are crushing fuel and maintenance costs on last-mile routes, proving beyond any doubt that purpose-built EV delivery vans are a home run when executed properly.
Rivian’s RCV is genuinely excellent, as it’s also a ground-up EV platform. While it’s no longer exclusive to Amazon, so you can theoretically get one of your own, Rivian doesn’t have the expansive dealer network and fleet partnerships that GM and Ford have. Many people still haven’t heard of Rivian, or if they have, they just assume it’s what their rich neighbor drives to Whole Foods, rather than considering it as an option for their small business.
Ford’s E-Transit, the only other volume player, is objectively inferior: 100+ miles less real-world range, smaller cargo area, and slower charging. It’s a lazy EV conversion of an existing gas van.
The Mercedes eSprinter is another gas van turned electric, and while it does have better range than the E-Transit, it’s also more expensive.
GM had the range leader, the biggest dealer and service network on the continent, and existing relationships with every major fleet management company. And, crucially, it was available AWD – something neither Rivian nor Ford offer. This might not matter in the Bay Area, but it’s a big deal for many places in the US where snow is a fact of life.
BrightDrop wasn’t a niche side project. It was a brilliant, scalable solution attacking the single best electrification use case in America while lowering costs across GM’s entire EV portfolio and converting an entire skeptical demographic.
So, what’s the solution?
GM needs to bring back the BrightDrop, ASAP.
But this time, make it in the US. This isn’t about politics, just reality. Between tarriffs and public perception, Made in USA might have drawbacks in terms of labor costs, but it’s important. And hey, the Ford E-Transit, Rivian RCV, and Mercedes eSprinter are all made in the US, so it’s clearly possible.
The other thing GM should do for the BrightDrop is to power it with an LFP battery. LFP batteries have a longer lifespan, are happy when charged to 100% (while traditional NCM EV batteries should only regularly be charged to 80% to minimize degradation), and have a lower cost per kWh, which are all things that matter for a fleet vehicle.
GM is already working on LFP cells. The new Bolt will initially ship with Chinese LFP batteries from CATL until GM gets volume production of their own going, but imagine how much higher volume they could achieve if they could use those cells in the BrightDrop as well.