General Motors gives up on BrightDrop electric vans

Summary

General Motors is abandoning its BrightDrop electric delivery vans, just four years after introducing the vehicles. The company announced Tuesday alongside third-quarter earnings that it made the decision because the “commercial electric delivery van market developed much slower than expected.” GM also blames the “changing regulatory environment and the elimination of tax credits in the United States” — the result of the second Trump administration’s hostility toward EVs. BrightDrop production has been suspended at GM’s CAMI Assembly facility in Ontario, Canada since May, when the company also cut 500 jobs. GM said Tuesday that it needs to have “meaningful discussions” with government leaders in Canada about “opportunities” for the plant. In the meantime, GM told TechCrunch that BrightDrop dealers will “continue to sell and service vehicles as we work through remaining inventory.” 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. 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, boasted on Tuesday that it is “well positioned to meet strong, sustained demand” for internal combustion vehicles. (Investors have rewarded that decision. GM’s stock price is up 14% at the time of publish.) BrightDrop’s short existence has been chaotic. GM revealed the program as a pseudo-startup in 2021. The automaker created BrightDrop in its “Global Innovation” organization (which is where OnStar was built) and spun it out as a privately-held company. BrightDrop launched at the Consumer Electronics Show that year. The automaker touted a lower total cost of ownersh...