General Motors just pulled the plug on BrightDrop, its electric delivery van program that promised to revolutionize commercial transport. The automaker announced Tuesday it's abandoning the four-year-old venture after struggling to sell even 1,500 units in 2025's first half, blaming sluggish market adoption and the elimination of federal EV tax credits under the Trump administration.
General Motors is calling it quits on BrightDrop, the electric delivery van program that was supposed to capture the e-commerce boom but instead became a cautionary tale about betting big on commercial EVs too early. The automaker announced Tuesday during its third-quarter earnings call that it's abandoning the venture entirely, citing a commercial electric delivery van market that "developed much slower than expected."
The timing couldn't be more telling. While GM sets new EV sales records in consumer markets, its commercial electric bet crashed and burned spectacularly. BrightDrop managed to sell barely 1,500 units in the first half of 2025 - a number that would make even struggling startups wince. For context, Rivian has put over 25,000 electric vans on the road with Amazon in roughly the same timeframe.
"The changing regulatory environment and the elimination of tax credits in the United States" also factored into GM's decision, according to the company's statement. That's corporate speak for the second Trump administration's systematic dismantling of EV incentives, which has sent automakers scrambling to recalibrate their electric strategies. Investors are clearly buying GM's pivot back to gas engines - the stock jumped 14% after the announcement.
BrightDrop's death spiral has been visible for months. Production stopped at GM's CAMI Assembly facility in Ontario back in May, when the company also cut 500 jobs due to weak demand. Now GM says it needs "meaningful discussions" with Canadian government leaders about "opportunities" for that plant - diplomatic language that usually precedes facility closures.
The program's four-year journey reads like a masterclass in corporate pivot failures. GM launched BrightDrop with fanfare at CES 2021, positioning it as a pseudo-startup within the company's Global Innovation organization. The pitch was compelling: lower total cost of ownership, reduced maintenance, and perfect timing to capture and other logistics giants pushing for carbon-neutral operations during the pandemic's e-commerce surge.
