General Motors is pulling the plug on its BrightDrop delivery van. While this probably isn’t a big deal for most readers of this site, one immediate thought came to my mind. The RV industry has been proud to announce brand-new, state-of-the-art camper vans that use the BrightDrop to have nearly 300 miles of zero-emissions range. The death of the BrightDrop means that the best platform for building an electric camper van on is now dead, and the RV industry just got set back practically overnight.
As I have written before, the RV industry has had a difficult time cracking into the electric vehicle world. RV manufacturers are usually secondary manufacturers, which means that they get trucks, vans, and chassis from an automaker or truck builder and then construct a camper onto that. Until recently, this has meant that if an RV company wanted to get into EVs, they had to wait until a company like General Motors or Ford created a viable platform.
At first, this meant that early factory-built electric motorhomes sucked. The Ford E-Transit-based Winnebago eRV2 (below), for example, had a pitiful range of only 104 miles. But there wasn’t anything Winnebago could do about that because the EV part came from Ford. Most other electric camper vans have been custom-built based on gas vans that get converted to electric.
The BrightDrop was actively changing the electric camper van game. GM’s electric delivery van was spacious, powerful, fast-charging, and perhaps most important to RV owners, had a range of 270 miles to 286 miles depending on the camper van configuration. The BrightDrop was the first platform that could be made into a camper van that realistically handled long drives without driving its occupants insane with charging stops.
BrightDrop Campers Have Been Around
I have been writing about BrightDrop-based vans for a couple of years now. In 2023, Detroit-based startup Grounded RVs began production of the G2, a camper van with lots of space and 270 miles of range. Then, this year, Grounded launched the G3, an update to its BrightDrop camper van with a better interior and up to 286 miles of range. The folks of Grounded were also building custom BrightDrop camper vans for California startup RollAway Hospitality.
These vans didn’t just have great range, but the platform itself was almost perfect for camper vans. Our Thomas Hundal enjoyed his drive in a BrightDrop. The common camper van configuration involved Zevo 400 and 600 vans sporting dual-motor AWD with 300 HP and 390 lb-ft of torque.
Later this year, some huge news came out of Indiana with the debut of the BrightDrop-based Coachmen RVEX. The launch of this van signified the first serious production all-electric camper van from one of the massive Indiana RV manufacturers. Things were looking great. Between Coachmen, RollAway, Grounded, and smaller outfits, Americans had some real choices for a practical factory-built electric camper van.
I have criticized these vans for being imperfect for the role of being a camper. Since the BrightDrop was designed as a delivery van, the cab is separated from the cargo area. When these are built into campers, this dividing wall means that the front seats cannot be used as lounge chairs, as you’d get in a typical camper van. The cab of the BrightDrop also isn’t very luxurious, either. However, the BrightDrop was long enough to make up some of the difference, and at least there was a pass-through in the cab to get to the camper portion. I think the quirks of using a delivery van platform were worth it to get the BrightDrop’s great range.
Now, the RV industry isn’t going to have access to these vans anymore. The death of the BrightDrop is being blamed on “market demand” and the loss of EV incentives, but it doesn’t really matter why GM is killing it. Once the supply of BrightDrop vans runs dry, that’s it.
An RV Manufacturer Responds
Admittedly, the first company that I thought of was Grounded. The startup was a pioneer in turning BrightDrop vans into campers, and, I think, would be impacted the hardest by GM’s decision here. Coachmen is a huge and flexible company, it can cancel the RVEX and perhaps few people would even remember. But this was Grounded’s bread and butter. So, I reached out, and got this back from Grounded:
BrightDrop is shutting down. Given GM’s whiplash-inducing EV strategy over the past few years, this comes as a surprise to no one. Detroit-based mobility innovation startup Grounded has long been considering expanding the company’s wildly successful personal and commercial upfits beyond electric and to gas for a truly platform agnostic future.
Today the company announced its expansion to the Grounded Gas line, which makes the company’s modular interiors, designs, Grounded+ telemetics software, and electronics available on any gas-powered platform.
Here’s what Sam Shapiro, founder of Grounded RVs, said:
“No one in the world tried as hard as we did to build on all-electric vans. But at the end of the day what differentiates Grounded is everything above the chassis: our design, materials, technology, and integrated fleet management software. We’ve built on fully-electric and hybrid platforms like Ford, GM, and Harbinger, and now, with Grounded Gas, which we’ve long considered, we’re looking to a truly platform-agnostic future. Our stock of available Brightdrops is strong at the moment, but expansion to gas vehicles will move the business forward and allow Grounded to continue to lead toward an electrified and hybrid future.”
I reached out to Coachmen and have not yet heard back. But it looks like in either case, both companies should have enough BrightDrops to build campers out of for a decent while. However, at some point, these companies will have to pivot away from the BrightDrop platform.
It’s unclear what Coachmen is going to do, but Grounded is going to move away from depending entirely on an EV platform. That alone is pretty surprising, as Grounded started off as an all-electric, affordable camper van company. But it makes sense that Grounded would pivot to a fuel-agnostic design. That way, Grounded won’t have to start over every time a company kills a van or announces a new one.
At the same time, I feel like this decision sets the RV industry back. There doesn’t seem to a direct replacement electric van on the market. The Ford E-Transit currently goes about 159 miles on a charge. There’s also the Mercedes-Benz eSprinter, which is rated for up to 206 miles on a charge. The Ram ProMaster EV still comes more than 100 miles short at 164 miles of range. Even the Rivian Delivery, a logistics van like the BrightDrop, goes 161 miles on a charge.
Thankfully, GM’s decision only somewhat kneecaps the RV industry. This doesn’t impact the brilliant partnership between Thor Industries and Harbinger, which has produced the world’s first production extended range electric motorhome. However, that beast is a Class A motorhome and is not a pure battery electric camper. If you’re into electric vans, you just lost the best choice for range.
The Future
In the near future, the next best thing might be a camper based on the eSprinter. At least those will go about 200 miles, depending on the conditions. It’s not quite as sexy as 286 miles, but it seems to be better than the other options. Or, perhaps maybe Harbinger can make a camper van. With GM out of the market, there’s probably a void to be filled. Harbinger has already teamed up with Grounded to make the C1 all-electric or plug-in hybrid mobile command center; maybe some of those could be made into campers one day.
Or, perhaps, because of the changing climate around politics and EVs in America, maybe the BrightDrop doesn’t need a replacement. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, but I can say that all of this whiplash about what EVs may or may not exist is absolutely headache-inducing.
The good news is that, for now, if you want to get a BrightDrop-based camper van, I’d buy one now before the stock dries up. After they’re gone, it will be interesting to see if and how electric camper van builders pivot. Either way, I hope this doesn’t discourage the RV industry as a whole. It’s still worthwhile to rid RVs of emissions and it’s still worthwhile to try out new tech in motorhomes. Let this be only a speedbump on a longer journey.
This creates a void in the market that Japan, Canada, Korea or, less likely to make it over here, China, could easily fill. Partial knock-down kits for the frame, engine and transmission would fit in containers, get assembled here and then have the motor home plunked on top.
RVs tend to be used for hops between tourist attractions and campgrounds, and in that situation, recharging after driving three or four hours would not be a problem. The biggest challenge would be recharging when out in the boonies away from civilization. The only Mom-and-Pop grocery and gas station in the rural towns of 100 people would have to invest in a charging station or two, which would not get a lot of use, especially during the off-season. Campgrounds would have to be wired for overnight charging as well, and they surely would be happy to charge a small fortune per kilowatt hour.
RVs in themselves are absurd planet blazing consumerism (fine, let’s go out fiddling, but don’t tell me how fucking environmentally friendly the wood in your fiddle is). Making RVs electric is entirely performative. Certain aspects of an electric RV might be technically interesting but nothing of value was lost. And I have an electric car as my daily but that is enabled by 4 other gas cars and the EV is 5th on the list for any road trip.
Battery RVs seemed like a waste, as much as I hate to say it.
They don’t accumulate much mileage, except when doing road trips on the highway, which uses battery hard. So, you need a huge battery to get decent range. Otherwise, they sit. The cost of fuel use for RVs is low relative to their capital cost. They are often away from sources of mains electricity to recharge.
It’s sort of the opposite use-case to delivery trucks. Delivery trucks get mileage put on every day, day-in and day-out. They are used in stop-and-go-situations delivering things. They return to a serviced depot where they charge overnight. The cost of fuel over the lifespan of the vehicle is high relative to the capital cost.
Neat technological dead-end at this juncture in history.
Sadly the BrightDrop just launched into a world where other competitors got the big commercial contracts, dooming it to rot on dealer lots when smaller businesses would buy a Chevy Express for half the upfront cost.
They need to adapt the body to a Silverado chassis and sell it as an ICE vehicle.
It never should have been a Brightdrop, it should have always been a Chevy or GMC.
It should have been a brand new van chassis to completely replace the Express/Savana with high roof options, cutaway/chassis cab options, ICE and EV powertrain options. Entering the step-van market was stupid… that’s a niche market with about 10k a year in sales across the board.
None of these bro startups turning them in to RV’s were legit, they were all frauds, and didn’t have the support of GM to do anything like a real certified upfitter.
Yeah it was stupid to not just badge them as Chevy/GMC from the get go. However at the time it was concieved the thought was a new brand was a good thing, seems they didn’t learn from all the money they threw away on Saturn. However building a new van at this point makes zero sense for GM. The market is too small and margins way to thin to invest in a new platform that would be North America only. There is a reason that in Europe most brands offer a van but the majority of them are rebages. Just not enough demand to make it profitable unless you can sell it around the world for 15+ years. Which brings us back to why the Dim drop was EV only at they time the pencil went to paper there was the expectation that they wouldn’t be building gas vehicles much longer. As far as making it a walk in truck that wasn’t a bad idea since so many vans are now last mile delivery vehicles where walk ins increase productivity significantly and they are good for other commercial uses like those in the building trades.
Couldn’t an RV manufacturers just buy the equipment to build their own brightdrop chassis if it is so good?
I imagine that’s a much bigger venture, which they’d be adopting just after a company with far more money selling it to a wider market decided it wasn’t worth maintaining.
I mean, I’m sure a giant like Thor or Forest River would have the capital to swing it. But the majority of RV companies do not get into the automotive side of manufacturing. That’s sort of why this whole thing sucks.
They made a great ev rv but i think they would also make a great van for many trades as well especially if you needed power on board. Just gm being gm their best effort cancelled and will be replaced with something junky in a few years.
I can’t be more pissed about this, and especially because of EV RVs that these companies were starting to build.
The 300 mile EV van is what’s badly needed, not the ancient V8 gas guzzling beast vans that are still on the market.
I can’t be sure but this sure seems like if Trump hadn’t gone to war against EVs it is more likely to have survived.
I currently own a Silverado EV 4WT. The strange caveat was that I was able to buy it about $20K under list since no one wants them. Their loss is my gain.
I owned my own company delivered Mission Tortillas there is no way this or any other EV on the market works.
Why? I think they work better than their gas equivalents.
All depends on your route and climate. The Rivian works well for Amazon and they have a few E-bastards now showing up in the local fleet too.
They are just missing a tornado hitting the factory so they can put a claim on their insurance. Cruise AV 2.0
Whilst I’m not shocked that no one is buying BEV vans right now (I haven’t sold a new E-Transit in about 2 years and I doubt I’ll ever sell another one), it seems a little short-sighted of GM to have not baked into the design the possibility of alternate drivetrains. With the death of this van, GM has to go back to the Express/Savana dinosaurs? Have they not seen how popular and flexible the gas Transits/Sprinters/Promasters of the world are?
Car companies are really fucking stupid sometimes.
I mean, how much worse than the Transit/Sprinter are you describing the Express? I’ve heard the new ones don’t get that much better fuel economy than the old BOF vans. And certainly, anyone looking for vans with high tow capacity is basically stuck with the Express at this point.
Huh. I was in Palm Springs over the weekend and saw a Chevy dealer overflow lot with like a dozen of these sitting covered in dust.
I notice when I search for EVs nationwide, Florida tends to have them marked down the most or almost the most. I’m not surprised.
And that of course is why they discontinued it.
I wonder if GM would sell the tooling to these guys
You can always count on GM to spend millions/billions to develop a new product – Then discontinue it.
This time, strangely enough, they did not bother to perfect it before giving it the axe.