New GM unit to sell electric vans, gear

DETROIT — The market for battery-powered delivery vehicles and equipment has so much potential that General Motors is forming a new business unit to serve it.

The first product for the new venture called Bright Drop will be an electric-powered wheeled pallet that will take goods from the warehouse to trucks and from trucks to destinations. Then GM will roll out a clean electric delivery van.

The pallet, named EP1, will go on sale early this year, with the EV600 van on the roads late in the year with 500 going to FedEx, the company’s first customer.

Bright Drop also will offer software and operational support for delivery businesses such as location services, battery status and remote unlocking.

But GM doesn’t intend to get into the delivery business, said Pamela Fletcher, GM’s vice president of global innovation.

“One thing we are not is a logistics company,” she said, adding that GM is working with many companies with experience in the field.

Since late 2018, Fletcher has been in charge of monetizing GM technology by turning ideas into businesses.

“We really need to leverage our electrification expertise to other industries,” she said.

Fletcher wouldn’t comment on whether Bright Drop products would be sold through existing GM dealerships or directly by the company. But spokesman Stuart Fowle said the company is working with its independent dealers on a separate Bright Drop sales network, with details to come later.

On a webcast, Fletcher said the EP1 pallet can travel up to 3 mph, carrying up to 23 cubic feet of cargo weighing up to 200 pounds. The pallets can reduce the strain on workers but would not operate autonomously, at least to start.