General Motors unveiled an array of new battery-powered models Wednesday at CES, including electric versions of the Silverado pickup and Equinox and Blazer SUVs that roll out over the next year, but in the near term its new BrightDrop commercial truck unit is already showing progress with orders for thousands of delivery vehicles from Walmart and FedEx.
FedEx, which previously ordered 500 BrightDrop vans, reserved an additional 2,000 of the vehicles for its delivery fleet. The company is expanding its tests of the new vehicles to 10 markets after an initial pilot in New York City. Walmart has also signed on as a new customer, reserving 5,000 EV600 and smaller EV410 electric vans, BrightDrop said.
“As important as it is that we save our customers time and money through convenient delivery options, it’s just as important that we focus on creating a more sustainable last mile delivery fleet that avoids emissions,” Tom Ward, a Walmart senior vice president, said during a video press conference. The GM unit’s ability to get its new electric delivery van to market “makes them a great partner to support our growing InHome delivery service, to support the retail giant’s growing last mile delivery network and goal of operating a zero-emissions logistics fleet by 2040.”
As GM, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Daimler and other global auto giants prepare to roll out more consumer-oriented electric cars and trucks, several of them also see lucrative opportunities to help major fleet operators replace gasoline- and diesel-powered commercial vehicles with non-polluting electrics. BrightDrop is counting on engineering and production support from GM, as well as its ability to provide comprehensive vehicle maintenance and charging support, to make it more compelling to business fleet owners than electric startups such as Rivian, Arrival and XOS Trucks.
So far, Rivian appears to be the early leader in total orders for commercial delivery vans with the 100,000 units equity partner Amazon has ordered.
“BrightDrop’s mission is to decarbonize the world’s deliveries,” Travis Katz, BrightDrop’s president and CEO said. The unit’s “holistic solution set, gives us powerful advantages that uniquely position us to support the world’s largest delivery companies, like Walmart and FedEx.”
GM shares fell 4.6% to close at $62.74 in New York trading on Wednesday.
