Transportation and logistics company Ryder System Inc. on Monday said it was buying 4,000 electric delivery vans from General Motors‘ BrightDrop commercial vehicle unit over the next three years for use in its lease and rental fleets.
As a result of that and other deals, BrightDrop said it has now sold out of its Zevo 600 van for the 2023 model year. It did not disclose the number of vans it will produce for 2023 but said it was now taking reservations for 2024 vehicles, with deliveries expected to begin in the middle of this year.
Ryder said it planned to add the Zevo 600 and smaller Zevo 400 to its lease and rental operations through 2025. The first 200 vans will be ordered this year, the company said. Ryder said 2023 Zevo 600 vans will be rented to customers in California, New York City and the Dallas area this year, while 2024 Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 vans will be available as soon as this summer.
“Electrifying lease and rental vehicles can have a significant impact on transportation-related emissions, and our goal is to make that switch as easy and enticing as possible for our customers,” Steve Hornyak, BrightDrop’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “Ryder’s plan to introduce 4,000 of our electric vans to their fleet shows their commitment to sustainable options for customers, and their confidence that BrightDrop will help them deliver on that.”
BrightDrop said it has started to ship the first 500 of its Zevo 600 vans that were built in the first quarter at GM’s CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, where scaled production began in January. BrightDrop has added more commercial customers, including American Tire Distributors, WasteNot Compost and Rexel USA, and has more than 30,000 reservations for its Zevo vans.
The Zevo 600, intended for long-range deliveries, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space and can travel up to 250 miles on a full charge. The Zevo 400 is scheduled to enter production later in the year.