A Unifor union rep on the Ontario manufacturing facility the place GM builds the all electrical Chevy BrightDrop van is briefly halting manufacturing of the industrial EV as a result of sluggish gross sales – however with huge reductions, Costco member packages, and state and utility incentives driving prices effectively under its diesel rivals, it’d nonetheless be the perfect EV deal you will get.
Donald Trump’s deliberate automotive tariffs might have been placed on maintain, however the uncertainty they induced simply from being threatened has induced waves of injury throughout a dozen industries – and that’s inflicting corporations like GM to count on extra ache within the close to time period.
To that finish, GM says it’s making, “operational and employment changes to stability stock and align manufacturing schedules with present demand,” on the CAMI Meeting plant in Ontario, Canada, the place it makes BrightDrop vans. The layoffs will start on April 14, in response to the union, when manufacturing will briefly stop till October 2025.
Throughout the downtime, GM says it plans to retool the plant to organize for manufacturing of the (presumably up to date) 2026 mannequin 12 months BrightDrop vans.
“(The manufacturing pause is) a crushing blow to a whole lot of working households in Ingersoll and the encircling area who depend upon this plant,” stated Unifor Nationwide President, Lana Payne, in an announcement. “Common Motors should do all the pieces in its energy to mitigate job loss throughout this downturn, and all ranges of presidency should step as much as help Canadian auto employees and Canadian-made merchandise.”
GM reported gross sales of simply 274 BrightDrop vans within the first quarter of 2025. That’s up about 7% from the 256 bought in Q1 of 2024 – however nonetheless actually. Undoubtedly. Not. Quite a bit.
When manufacturing resumes in October, the plant will function on a single shift, which can end in lowered manufacturing fee for GM’s industrial vans and the indefinite layoff of almost 500 union manufacturing unit employees, in response to Unifor.
Electrek’s Take
We’ve lined the $30,000-plus reductions at the moment out there for Chevy BrightDrop prospects. These reductions are already sufficient to take the $84,235 BrightDrop 400 eAWD EV all the way in which right down to $52,985 – and that’s earlier than utility incentives like ComEd’s industrial EV rebates (which the Chevy van qualifies for) can convey it down even additional.
ComEd is providing as much as $30,000 in rebates (per car) in the event you snap up the Class 3/11,000 GVWR model … which means Chicago space fleets can electrify their supply operations for a lot, a lot lower than they in all probability suppose.
Examine your state and native rebates at this hyperlink to see what a BrightDrop may cost you in your state, then tell us in the event you can consider a greater EV deal within the feedback.
SOURCE: Unifor; through Reuters.
