General Motors sparked many new electric vehicles in his digital lecture at the Consumer Electronics Show, including Cadillac’s flagship Celestiq, and a pair of Corvette-like crossovers that are apparently Buicks. There was a Chevy truck there, too. Many EVs, in fact.
Given all these new faces, it’s easy to miss one of GM’s most grounded and detailed ads of the day. That would be BrightDrop, a new company within GM that will build commercial electric vehicles for delivery companies – as well as software solutions to connect them and help customers manage their fleets.
At the moment, BrightDrop represents two products that GM says will start shipping this year. The EV600, BrightDrop’s first van, scheduled for delivery in December 2021, is powered by the same Ultium battery platform as GM’s consumer EVs.
The EV600 has an estimated range of 250 miles on a charge and should be able to offer 170 miles of range after an hour connected, thanks to the speed of 120 kilowatts charging. Inside, the EV600 will offer more than 600 cubic feet of cargo space. FedEx will receive the first 500 EV600s BrightDrop builds.
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The EV600 is, as my colleague Justin said, “a good looking van”. However, it appears to have a more supporting role in BrightDrop’s plans.
More interesting is the EP1, an electric pallet that has a built-in motor to aid movement. GM says the EP1 will start reaching customers as early as this month. The EP1 was designed to be easy to get around tight spaces, easy to load and unload delivery vehicles, and several can be chained together for larger deliveries.
It turns out that FedEx has been testing EP1 and seeing encouraging early results. According to FedEx Regional President for the Americas, Richard Smith:
BrightDrop products will help FedEx Express handle unprecedented demands, improve the safety, security and punctuality of deliveries, reduce our environmental impact and protect the well-being of our shippers.
In an initial pilot that we ran with BrightDrop EP1, our FedEx Express couriers were able to handle 25% more packages per day safely and effectively. The feedback from our team members was excellent. EP1s were easy to maneuver and helped to reduce physical effort. We are very pleased, we have a second EP1 pilot planned to take place this quarter and we expect the results to be even more impactful.
Pam Fletcher, GM’s vice president of global innovation, suggested that Detroit Free Press that BrightDrop has negotiated agreements with customers other than FedEx:
“From the way we are handling this opportunity – making it an independent business, an excellent team and a new leader – you will have an idea that we think the possibilities with this are very impressive,” said Fletcher. “The contribution you are going to make is worth more than the commitment.”
Fletcher added that the “contribution to financial results will start very quickly” because BrightDrop already has letters of intent from customers other than FedEx, but she declined to mention them.
One thing missing from the BrightDrop reveal was any discussion related to the price of the EV600 or EP1. Ford promised the next E-Transit it would start below $ 45,000 when it revealed that electric van in November. However, E-Transit appears to target the consumer as well as commercial sales, while BrightDrop is only courting commercial customers at the moment.
The E-Transit was also designed to offer half the range of the EV600: 126 miles versus 250. This may seem like a glaring handicap on Ford’s part, but remember: delivery vans take a lot of short trips.
In fact, much of Ford’s language around E-Transit appears to prioritize low cost of ownership and reduced need for expensive maintenance compared to vans powered by internal combustion engines. It’s quite different from how GM introduced the EV600, as keeping the van economical, especially for small businesses, was not mentioned in the lecture. (For what it’s worth, the official EV600 page projects “over $ 7,000 in annual operating expense savings versus [a] diesel alternative. ”)
Then again, the way GM is launching BrightDrop, the van part almost looks like an addendum. GM sees BrightDrop as “a delivery ecosystem” for large companies that need this kind of thing – not just a manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles. And BrightDrop’s future clearly revolves around EP1, not EV600.
In the lecture, Fletcher talked about the company exploring various vehicle concepts, including a “medium distance solution that carries multiple EP1s”, as well as a “fast cargo delivery concept” that can open a side panel and place some EP1s in one sidewalk at once. GM is evidently delighted with this idea of an electric pallet.
Commercial vehicles offer a great opportunity for electrification to generate positive changes. This is especially true for delivery vans, which spend a lot of time in neutral and produce disproportionately high emissions for the short distances they travel. I hope that BrightDrop can do something good here; I also wouldn’t mind an army of EP1s to do my bidding.