30 August 2024
Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily 5.
Back in July, we ran a report about GM’s BrightDrop electric delivery van business folding into the GM Envolve fleet and commercial unit. The idea was greater efficiency. Our story also said that after pausing production last fall, GM had resumed building BrightDrop’s Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 vans at its CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.
Today, there comes news that BrightDrop vans will become part of Chevrolet, as the automaker hopes to capitalize on Chevy’s larger dealership network and land new fleet customers.
The Zevo 400 and 600, numbered by their approximate cargo space, will be rebranded as the Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 and 600 starting with the 2025 model year, and both will continue to be built at the CAMI assembly plant.
GM is looking to bolster the software side of its business, too, and has added another former Apple Inc. leader to its software services group, hiring Tim Twerdahl as vice president of product management.
Twerdahl joins GM as it builds out its software unit’s leadership team with former Apple executives, while cutting other personnel to remove some staffing layers.
At Apple, Twerdahl oversaw products such as AirPods and Apple TV as vice president of the tech giant’s home and audio products business.
There are plenty of other news stories today at Automotive News, including Carvana building its first mega-dealership, Polestar recording a large quarterly loss and Chinese consumer tech giant Huawei Technologies, long suspected of wanting to become a carmaker, making it clear it has no intention of doing so.
That’s it for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.