The Chevrolet BrightDrop EV Van Is Useless

• GM has formally shuttered manufacturing of the BrightDrop electrical industrial van.
• Manufacturing has been paused since Might.
• The automaker cited the top of the EV tax credit score and slower than anticipated improvement of the industrial EV market.

Basic Motors’ BrightDrop electrical supply vans aren’t any extra. The automaker made the choice to shutter manufacturing of the industrial car at its CAMI Meeting plant in Canada and introduced the information on Tuesday alongside its third-quarter earnings.

In line with GM, the rationale for the shutdown is “a lot slower than anticipated” improvement of the industrial electrical supply van market. It additionally positioned blame on the “altering regulatory atmosphere” in addition to the federal EV tax credit score coming to an finish. On Sept. 30, the $7,500 shopper EV tax credit score ended together with an as much as $40,000 incentive for consumers of business autos.

This in all probability should not come as an excessive amount of of a shock. There have been indicators of weak spot within the BrightDrop division for months.

It paused manufacturing of each the BrightDrop 400 and BrightDrop 600 fashions again in Might. On the time, it laid off 500 employees and blamed sluggish gross sales. It initially deliberate to reopen the manufacturing unit in July, however pushed that date again till October. Nonetheless, gross sales nonetheless did not decide up via September, which led to an prolonged pause via mid-November.

Final yr, GM folded the BrightDrop division into its Chevrolet model in an obvious try and make the vans extra marketable.

BrightDrop vans have been piling up in heaps on both facet of the Canadian border for months. On the finish of Q3, GM recorded simply 3,976 gross sales for the complete yr—60% of which had been from Q3 as consumers regarded to make the most of the expiring EV tax credit score.

To be honest to GM, that is an uptick. In 2024, GM delivered simply 1,529 BrightDrop vans. And in 2023 (when BrightDrop as an organization was re-absorbed into GM), it recorded simply 497 deliveries.

Evidently, you’ll be able to see why GM decided to fold right here.

It is not like electrical supply vans aren’t a slam-dunk for city transit. Rivian’s industrial vans, for instance, have been propping up Amazon’s supply community for months and bought a whopping 6,809 items via Q3. The venerable Ford e-Transit (which delivered 4,174 items for 2025 on the finish of Q2) can also be a reasonably fashionable choice—probably as a result of it began at $22,400 lower than GM’s providing earlier than GM drastically dropped the worth earlier this yr.

In hindsight, you’ll be able to view BrightDrop as a casualty of the auto business’s overconfident EV period. Up till the final couple of years, Detroit thought it might electrify something and shoppers would lap it up.

It additionally made sense on paper. Emission targets develop into a cakewalk, battery prowess is simple to point out off and the corporate is hip with new EV tech. However when EV costs and shopper demand failed to satisfy that essential crossover level, adoption cooled off and prices remained excessive.

So let’s pour one out for BrightDrop. It was one of many many electrified concepts that burned too vivid and burnt out quick. Perhaps in GM’s put up the post-Final period it is going to cook dinner up a sensibly priced substitute.