This summer, General Motors moved its electric van company BrightDrop into Chevy to boost sales and better compete with Ford, Rivian, and others in the electric van space. And now the Chevy-branded version of the van has a new deal in place with Walmart.
After piloting 400 BrightDrop vans for customer deliveries, Walmart is now officially adding them to its fleet. Back in 2022, BrightDrop inked a deal with Walmart to reserve 5,000 of its vans, including the larger 600 models (the number refers to the approximate square footage of cargo space). But this time around, Walmart is opting for the smaller 400 versions of the electric van, with the retail giant not specifying how many vans it will deploy this year.
But to get an idea of the scope of the deal, Walmart announced that its in-home delivery program is expanding to reach 62 million households around the country. The program will roll out Chevy BrightDrop vans in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, northwest Arkansas, Orlando, and the San Francisco Bay area by the end of the year.
The electric vans run on GM’s Ultium battery platform, with the latest versions of both the 600 and 400 able to drive 272 miles of combined city and highway driving on a single charge, according to GM.
“With a focus on being people-led and tech-powered, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the associate experience and provide the best possible service to our customers. That’s why we’re so excited about the addition of the BrightDrop 400 to our InHome delivery fleet,” said Walmart vice president of Dedicated Delivery, Warren Moore in a statement. “During the pilot, we listened closely to our InHome associates’ feedback and were impressed by the vans’ performance in real-world scenarios.”
BrightDrop was launched in January 2021 as a standalone brand focused on commercial EVs. Last year, the company was integrated into GM Evolve, its fleet business, with companies such as FedEx, Ryder, and DHL already on its client roster.
BrightDrop was projected to bring in $1 billion in revenue in 2022, but sales have been slower than predicted, and BrightDrop’s CEO Travis Katz left the company after the restructuring at GM. But now under Chevy, the company has access to its dealer network to sell not only the van but also its “Core” software suite. In 2023, BrightDrop sold just 500 vans, according to CNBC, with GM reporting selling 746 vans in the first six months of 2024.
Photos: Courtesy of General Motors
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