GM also plans to invest in its Ingersoll plant for the production of BrightDrop electric commercial vehicles.
General Motors will spend more than $2B in its Ingersoll-Oshawa plants in Canada during the fourth quarter 2022. The money will be used to build the Silverado 1500 at Oshawa’s factory during the third shift of production. This location is the only GM site that builds light- and heavy-duty Silverado HD variants.
According to Automotive News, the Oshawa plant was closed between November 2021 and late 2019. It was reopened in order to construct the Silverado heavy-duty truck. The investment will create a third shift at the plant, creating 2,600 new jobs.
Recent news regarding the Silverado’s production capacity is not in line with this decision. Chevy had the need to suspend the assembly pickup and the GMC Sierra due to supply problems.
This expansion should support Silverado’s demand. The segment Chevy trucks are third in sales as of the first quarter of 2022. They are behind the Ram pickups in second and Ford in top spot.
This money will also be used to make the Ingersoll plant able to build BrightDrop electric delivery vehicles by December 2022. These models will be produced by the factory in spring and summer.
BrightDrop by GM is a brand for electric commercial vehicles. The Zevo 600 is the marque’s flagship product. This name refers to the 600 cubic feet (16.99 m) of storage. The delivery van can travel 250 miles (402 kilometers) on an average. After plugging in a 120-kilowatt DC fast charge, you can get 170 miles (274 km) range.
The Zevo 400 has 400 cubic feet (11.3 cubic meters) of load capacity. Brightdrop envisions it working for telecom maintenance and grocery drop-offs.
Brightdrop’s electric tray, the Trace, can carry up to 23 cubic feet (0.65 meters) of goods and a payload of 200 pounds (90.72 kgs). It can be used to transport heavy items from one door to another.