BrightDrop was a
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...
business created by the American manufacturer
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
in 2021. The business offered a system of connected products targeting first- and last-mile delivery customers, including
light commercial electric vehicles
An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...
, , and cloud-based software.
Its first products, the
BrightDrop Zevo delivery van and Trace electric cart, were unveiled at the
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
on 12 January 2021. General Motors invested $800 million to produce the Zevo 600 in the
CAMI Assembly manufacturing facility in
Ingersoll, Ontario. In 2022, CEO
Travis Katz shared as part of GM's Investor day that the company was on track to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2023.
In 2024, the BrightDrop division was merged into
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
, with the Zevo being renamed the Chevrolet BrightDrop beginning with the 2025 model year.
History
BrightDrop was one of the first successful businesses started in GM's Global Innovation
incubator, headed at the time by engineer Pam Fletcher. Study of potential concepts for urban delivery began in September 2019 under the code name Smart Cargo. By February 2020, the Smart Cargo concept had evolved to include a potential electric delivery van and an electrically propelled container for delivery businesses. Later that year, GM appointed technology entrepreneur and investor Travis Katz to become president and CEO of BrightDrop.
Previously, Katz had held executive roles at
Redpoint Ventures
Redpoint Ventures is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early and growth-stage companies.
History
The firm was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angel ...
,
Skyscanner, and
MySpace
Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
; he was also CEO and co-founder of
Trip.com.
GM CEO
Mary Barra
Mary Teresa Barra (née Makela; born December 24, 1961) is an American businesswoman who has been the chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of General Motors since January 15, 2014. She is the first female CEO of a 'Big Three' automaker. In De ...
introduced the BrightDrop brand as part of her address at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2021.
After the announcement, GM's stock reached its highest price since its
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 2010.
In 2021,
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
was announced as the first commercial customer for BrightDrop vehicles,
which placed an initial order for 500 Zevo 600 vehicles.
Merchants Fleet, a fleet management company, is slated to purchase an additional 12,600 Zevo 600s starting in 2023.
BrightDrop changed the names of its entire lineup of products in April 2022. The EV600 was renamed to Zevo inclusive of two variants, the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 (previously known as EV600 and EV410 respectively) and the BrightDrop Trace (previously known as EP1.)
In 2022, GM retooled the
CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Canada to the BrightDrop platform, to become General Motors Canada's first commercial electric vehicle manufacturing plant. GM stated that it invested $2 billion converting the plant to a state of the art EV manufacturing facility. Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
and Ontario Premier
Doug Ford
Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2018. He represents the Toronto rid ...
attended the opening of the plant in December, 2022.
In March 2023, BrightDrop shipped the first 500+ Zevo 600s built at the CAMI Assembly facility.
, BrightDrop had more than 30 commercial customers, including
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
,
Hertz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or Cycle per second, cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in ter ...
,
DHL Express,
Purolator Inc.,
American Tire Distributors, WasteNot Compost and Rexel USA.
Ryder
Ryder System, Inc. is an American transportation and logistics company, specializing in truck rental and leasing, fleet management, supply chain management, and transportation management. It also offers full-service leasing, rental and maint ...
plans to purchase 4,000 BrightDrop Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 electric vans for its lease and rental fleet through 2025, with the first 200 arriving in 2023.
On November 16, 2023, GM integrated BrightDrop more closely into GM's Envolve commercial business to provide fleet customers with an "efficient single point of contact." CEO Travis Katz stepped down from the CEO role.
Products

BrightDrop's first two products are the
Zevo 600 electric van and Trace electric pallet.
The Zevo 600 is powered by GM's
Ultium battery platform and is purpose-built for the delivery of goods and services over long distances.
It has a built-in security system
and a range of 250 miles per charge.
Its name is a play on its 600 cubic feet of cargo space.
The BrightDrop Trace can carry up to 23 cubic feet and 200 pounds.
It has a built-in electric motor
to move at a speed of up to 3 miles per hour, adjusting to the walking speed of its operator.
It helps delivery workers move goods over short distances, like from a van to a customer's front door.
It has adjustable shelves and doors that can be remotely locked and unlocked.
In a pilot program with
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
, couriers were able to handle 25% more packages per day with the Trace
and experienced less physical strain.
The company also has a cloud-based software platform accessible by web or mobile app.
Its software can monitor vehicle locations
and battery charges,
manage vehicles remotely, predict maintenance needs,
and optimize routes.
A smaller version of BrightDrop's van, to be called the Zevo 400, will be built at the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Canada from 2023, with the first models going to the fleet of Verizon.
Operations
BrightDrop developed electric vans, related hardware, support services and software for use by commercial delivery firms.
It was part of a larger initiative at GM to have an all-electric lineup of vehicles by 2035.
References
External links
*
{{General Motors
Battery electric vehicle manufacturers
Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States
General Motors marques
General Motors subsidiaries