GM's BrightDrop delivers the goods
Auto company's commitment to electronic vehicles extends to commercial delivery business
For a company long dismissed as a dinosaur, General Motors is moving with surprising rapidity of late.
Just a few days after announcing its new “Everybody In” program highlighting its commitment to EVs — “All in,” says chief executive officer Mary Barra — the General has just announced the beginnings of an entirely allnew division.
BrightDrop, headed by ex-vice-president of Skyscanner and co-founder of Trip. com Travis Katz, is entering the commercial delivery business, offering logistics companies a soup-to-nuts compendium of “first-to-last” vehicles, software and services to make the delivery business of the future not only greener but much more efficient.
“BrightDrop offers a smarter way to deliver goods and services,” says Barra, “building on our significant expertise in electrification, mobility applications, telematics and fleet management.”
More importantly, she says, BrightDrop will be a “one-stop shop” for commercial fleets looking to move goods in a faster, more sustainable way. The first of the “first-to-last” products will be the EP1, “a propulsion-assisted, electric pallet” that will move goods over short distances such as to the front door of a home or through the warehouse of a business.
Essentially an enclosed cart with hub motors capable of propelling it up to 5 kilometres an hour, the EP1 can carry 23 cubic feet of cargo. No doubt such electric pallets will eventually be robotic and autonomous but, for now, they are driver-controlled. The second product announced at the launch is the EV600. Essentially the familiar shape of a delivery van now electrified, the EV600 is a light commercial truck capable of carrying 600 cubic feet of cargo. Its range is listed at 400 kilometres thanks to GM's latest Ultium batteries and is said to be able to charge 270 kilometres per hour thanks to 120-kW charging capacity (do the math and it appears the EV600 will have between 150 and 200 kWh of lithium-ion under its cargo floor).
Though the zero-emissions aspect of BrightDrop's announcement will surely be the headline generator, the company's integrated, cloudbased software platform will be a huge motivator as well. The EP1 knows which packages are in it, the EV600 monitors all the connected pallets in its cargo area, and the entire shooting match is manageable, in real time, by headquarters. Drivers and dispatchers can utilize the built-in connectivity to analyze data, improve overall operations, including route efficiency, asset utilization and product upgrades. Of course, the EV600 will offer location monitoring and battery status so charging cycles can be optimized.
According to Pamela Fletcher, GM's vice-president of innovation, FedEx has already tested BrightDrop's new software and mobility solutions and reported a 25-per-cent efficiency gain thanks to the driver's reduced workload and the superior monitoring/routing of packages. Little wonder, then, that the first orders for the EV600, some 500 trucks, will be delivered late this year to FedEx (the EP1 will be available at the end of the first quarter of 2021).
The General was a little coy about what other products might be in the pipeline. The EV600's limited range makes it unsuitable for all but urban and possible suburban use, especially considering its rather tepid charging rate. Fletcher says there will be longer-range solutions available though we can't help thinking the recent scandal involving new GM partner Nikola may be the reason there was no immediate announcement.
What is not in doubt is GM's timing is fortuitous. As Fletcher notes, ecommerce was already on fast-developing trajectory but “COVID has only taken it to another scale.” According to the World Economic Forum, “demand for e-commerce-fuelled last-mile delivery is expected to grow by 78 per cent by 2030, leading to a 36-per-cent increase in delivery vehicles in the world's top 100 cities.” GM, meanwhile, estimates that by 2025 the combined market opportunity for parcel, food delivery, and reverse logistics in the U.S. will be over $850 billion.
That's a lot of Ultium batteries.