Article content
Buying a commercial fully electric van will soon be as easy as wandering down to your nearest Chevy dealer, and Cami workers are anticipating a sales and production boost for the Ingersoll plant as a result.
GM announced on Thursday its BrightDrop commercial van made at Cami Assembly will join the Chevrolet lineup, meaning it will be sold at dealerships next to Chevy cars.
Article content
Until now, BrightDrop was only available through a few select dealers in Canada and the U.S.
“This is the next, logical evolution (for BrightDrop) and it started with the customer. It’s about accessibility,” said Sandor Piszar, vice-president of GM Envolve in North America, the automaker’s fleet division.
The move will mean dealerships also will sell parts and service the vans.
“It’s a great opportunity to serve customers, and drive volume,” Piszar said.
He would not forecast how many more vans the move to lot sales may mean for the automaker. According to the EV industry website InsideEVs, BrightDrop sales increased in the first and second quarter of 2024 to 746 vehicles, a 150 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier.
“It makes a lot of sense for our customers,” Piszar said.
At Cami, workers are on a rotating schedule of two weeks on and two weeks off and any move to boost sales is welcome, said Mike Van Boekel, president of Unifor Local 88 that represents about 1,300 workers.
“It’s good news for us. It means we may sell more vans to more people and that may mean more work,” he said.
Article content
Unifor has about 200 members working full time in a battery assembly plant on-site, building batteries for the BrightDrop. In addition, it has about 450 members rotating on and off work every two weeks in the assembly plant and nearly 200 skilled trades workers employed full time in the assembly plant.
Cami assembles the BrightDrop EVO 600 and 400, two commercial vans that travel up to 437 kilometres on a full charge.
Chevrolet dealers wanting to sell and service the BrightDrop will have to meet commercial EV requirements, GM said in an announcement.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
