On Monday, the first electric delivery trucks rolled off production lines at BrightDrop's new factory in Canada when the upstart unit of General Motors Co announced DHL Express Canada as its first customer outside the United States.
GM spent seven months and more than $2 billion in transforming its 2 million-square-foot CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, into Canada's first large-scale electric vehicle EV factory for BrightDrop Zevo delivery trucks. The site produced the gasoline-powered Chevy Equinox before the switch.
The retooled plant is a major step towards providing EVs at scale, according to Travis Katz, BrightDrop Chief Executive. He believes that the facility will produce 50,000 Zevo electric vans annually by the year 2025.
Its debut comes as GM's fast-growing commercial EV unit races rivals such as Ford Motor Co, Rivian Automotive Inc, Stellantis and Arrival for dominance in the electric delivery truck market.
BrightDrop has a relationship with GM, which gives it manufacturing and financial heft that many of its rival EV startups don't, according to experts.
Katz said that it allows us to go faster.
In 2021, BrightDrop is expected to reap its first $1 billion in sales next year, according to Katz, who said it took Tesla Inc a decade to hit the same milestone.
BrightDrop previously made vans in a temporary factory in Michigan. It already delivered 150 electric trucks to FedEx Corp. The other U.S. customers include Walmart Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
Those companies and many others have set a goal to replace gas-burning delivery trucks and service vehicles with zero emissions alternatives over time.
Andrew Williams, CEO of DHL Express Canada, said that the new relationship with BrightDrop will bring us closer to that target.