GM's electric delivery spinoff BrightDrop is now doing business in Canada

BrightDrop, the GM-backed EV logistics company, is announcing its first international customer: DHL Express Canada. This comes alongside news that the company is starting production of its Zevo 600 delivery van at its Ontario-based CAMI assembly plant.

The CAMI plant is Canada's first large-scale EV factory, according to Brightdrop. The company anticipates the location to produce 50,000 Zevo EVs per year by 2025. GM invested about $800 million in the CAMI plant to prepare it for BrightDrop, with mass production of the larger Zevo 600 vehicle scheduled to begin in January. The smaller Zevo 400 will debut in late 2023.

DHL Express Canada expects to receive its first Zevo vans early next year. DHL's worldwide fleet already includes more than 27,000 EVs, and BrightDrop will help it achieve its 2050 sustainability goals, CEO Andrew Williams said in a press release. The Canadian DHL branch in Toronto is also testing BrightDrop's logistics software platform and its Trace eCart delivery pallets, which could help workers move more packages safely from vehicle to door.

According to BrightDrop, it now has more than 30 customers and more than 25,000 vehicles either reserved or intended. In the US, its biggest customers include FedEx and Walmart, the latter of which reserved 5,000 of both Zevo models earlier this year.

Meanwhile, FedEx said it will reserve 2,500 vans and has already taken delivery of 150 Zevo 600 EVs. Other customers include Verizon, which is the first to order the smaller Zevo 400 EV with 400 cubic feet of capacity, and Hertz, which is buying all kinds of EVs from GM over the next five years.

Last month, BrightDrop projected it would achieve $1 billion in revenue for 2023 and $10 billion by the end of the decade with a 20 percent profit margin. The company is part of GM's $35 billion pivot into EVs and aims to become a "one stop shop" for first- and last-mile delivery vehicles, logistics software and other services. BrightDrop is accelerating the pace of bringing more Zevo vans into service as its competition from Ford, Rivian and Arrival heats up.

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