GM-owned BrightDrop to add 4,000 electric vans to Ryder’s fleets

BrightDrop, the electric van company owned by General Motors, will provide 4,000 delivery vans to Ryder’s rental fleet through 2025. That includes BrightDrop’s upcoming Zevo 400 model and the Zevo 600 vans, 200 of which Ryder will order this year.

According to Ryder, the company plans on adding the 2023 Zevo 600 vans to its rental fleet in California, Texas, and New York later this year and also expects to deploy the 2024 Zevo 600 and 400 models “as early as summer 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024.” While BrightDrop’s Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 vans both offer up to 250 miles of range on a full charge, the 600 is the larger of the two, supporting a cargo capacity of over 600 cubic feet as opposed to 400 cubic feet.

In addition to Ryder, BrightDrop has already committed to providing thousands of its electric vans to companies like Walmart, FedEx, DHL, and Hertz. The EV maker says it has over 30 commercial customers so far and that it has started shipping over 500 of the Zevo 600 vans built at its Canada-based CAMI assembly plant. Last year, BrightDrop predicted it will hit $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2023 and hopes to reach a yearly output rate of 50,000 EVs at its CAMI plant by 2025.

BrightDrop has a bit of competition in the electric delivery van space. Rivian, for example, has already struck a deal to provide Amazon with its delivery vans, and the USPS is set to order over 9,000 E-Transit vehicles from Ford. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz has announced that its eSprinter van will come to the US in the second half of this year, although it doesn’t have any official delivery partners just yet.