GM to Invest $800M in Canadian Plant to Support BrightDrop Delivery Business

Detroit-based General Motors Co. plans to bring production of its recently announced BrightDrop electric light commercial vehicle, the EV600, to its CAMI manufacturing plant in Ontario, Canada through an $800 million investment.
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BrightDrop EP1 electric e-pallet
GM is investing $800 million in its CAMI manufacturing plant in Ontario to produce its EV600, an electric light commercial vehicle for BrightDrop. Pictured is a worker using BrightDrop’s EP1 electric e-pallet. // Photo courtesy of General Motors Co.

Detroit-based General Motors Co. plans to bring production of its recently announced BrightDrop electric light commercial vehicle, the EV600, to its CAMI manufacturing plant in Ontario, Canada through an $800 million investment.

The plan is subject to ratification of a tentative 2021 agreement reached with Unifor, Canada’s general trade union, and confirmation of government support.

The company plans to deliver the EV600 in late 2021, and the investment will enable GM to convert CAMI into Canada’s first large-scale electronic delivery vehicles manufacturing plant. GM announced BrightDrop, the company’s electric delivery branch, last week.

Work on the plant will begin immediately, transforming it over the next two years from Chevrolet Equinox production.

BrightDrop will offer commercial customers a connected and electrified products and services designed to improve delivery. It aims to help business-to-business customers reduce cost of ownership, improve productivity and safety, and improve carbon footprints and sustainability efforts. Its initial products include a software platform for fleet and asset management, the EP1 electric e-pallet, and the EV600 light commercial vehicle that will expand the Ultium platform to commercial vehicles.

Other recent GM investments in Canada include the more than $1 billion in Oshawa Assembly Pickup investments, an $86 million product and $22 million Renewable Energy Cogeneration project at St. Catharines, and a nearly $135 million investment in an after-market parts operation in Oshawa.

In related news, GM has announced a multi-year partnership with The Goldman Sachs Group and Mastercard, both in New York, to co-brand rewards-based credit cards. Goldman Sachs will be the issuing bank, and Mastercard will remain the network of choice.

The start is targeted for September, and current cardmembers will see no changes to their card accounts before then.

“We chose to partner with Goldman Sachs because of their proven ability to innovate,” says Chuck Thomson, general manager of retail sales and marketing support at GM.

GM launched its first consumer card in 1992 and has since had millions of customers redeem earnings toward the purchase of new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles.