General Motors siblings BrightDrop and Cruise Automation are talking about how driverless technology could fit with commercial vehicles like the electric vans BrightDrop will begin delivering to FedEx in December.
“Cruise is starting on ride-share, but they have investment from Walmart,” BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz told FreightWaves in an interview at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo last week in Long Beach, California.
“Walmart is in the delivery business so you can imagine their ideas...
General Motors plans to add two new electric vehicles (EVs) to its commercial vehicle lineup as it continues to expand its electric platform to meet its goal of launching 30 EVs globally by 2025.
The new vehicles — an electric Chevrolet cargo van similar in size to the current Chevrolet Express van and a larger medium-duty vehicle — will leverage the company’s BrightDrop EV business and take advantage of the company’s $35 billion capital and engineering investment efforts.
“Now if you step back...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/gm-to-bring-electric-cargo-van-medium-duty-truck-to-market
A successful trial of nine Lightning eMotors electric Ford Transit vans has led DHL Express to announce it will deploy an additional 89 vehicles in New York and California this year.
The Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) Transit 350HD Class 3 vans are equipped with Lightning’s zero-emission system and capable of achieving 61 miles per gallon equivalent, compared to 13 miles per gallon for a similar gas-powered van, Lightning said. They include proprietary telematics and analytics software, which will aid...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/dhl-express-ups-order-for-lightning-emotors-electric-transit-vans
U.K. electric delivery van and bus startup Arrival Ltd. will build its second U.S. microfactory in Charlotte, North Carolina, the site of its U.S. headquarters. The SPAC-backed startup begins public trading Thursday.
The new microfactory will make vans to help fulfill a 10,000-unit order from United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). Many of the vehicles produced at the Charlotte microfactory are expected to enter UPS’ North American and European fleets.
“We’re excited by this significant milestone that...
https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/arrival-sets-second-us-microfactory-as-public-trading-nears
The Daily Dash is a quick look at what is happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, C.R. England, one of the carriers targeted in a staged-accident scheme, is suing the law firm involved. Plus, XPO thinks 2021 is only going to get better, and Forward Air makes an acquisition and a divestiture.
C.R. England fighting backTruckload carrier C.R. England, the company that court records suggest paid out the greatest amount of money in the Louisiana staged-accident scandal, is fighting...
https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/the-daily-dash:-cr-england-strikes-back;-xpo-bullish-on-2021
Many shippers in the e-commerce segment learned invaluable lessons in 2020 — siloed solutions don’t work well when scale and speed are a must. The same can be said for last-mile delivery operations. Siloed operations — where data, equipment and people are operating on different timelines — can doom the overall customer experience.
Currently, hundreds of vehicle makers — both legacy and startups — are working to bring electric vehicles to market. For the e-commerce brand or anyone else involved...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/gm-bets-on-brightdrops-connected-last-mile-delivery-ecosystem
BrightDrop, the new General Motors (NYSE: GM) subsidiary creating an ecosystem of electric light commercial delivery vans and connected pallets, will sell 12,600 of its EV600 vans to Merchants Fleet.
Merchants Fleet describes itself as the nation’s fast-growing fleet management company. It will take delivery of the vans beginning in early 2023. BrightDrop’s first customer, FedEx Express (NYSE: FDX), will receive the first of 500 vans it has ordered by the end of this year.
“Merchants Fleet is...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/merchants-fleet-orders-12600-gm-brightdrop-electric-vans