GM is also investing in its Ingersoll plant to build BrightDrop electric commercial vehicles.
Through the fourth quarter of 2022, GM will invest more than $2 billion in its Canadian facilities in Ingersoll and Oshawa. The money will be used to produce the Silverado 1500 at the Oshawa factory, among other things, during a newly added third shift of manufacturing. The Silverado HD is already built at this facility, making it the only GM plant that produces both light- and heavy-duty versions of the vehicle.
The Oshawa factory closed from late 2019 to November 2021, according to Automotive News. It re-opened to build the heavy-duty Silverado. With this investment to create a third shift, the plant will have new 2,600 jobs at the site.
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Adding production capacity for the Silverado stands in contrast to recent news about the model’s capacity. In March 2022, Chevy had to pause the assembly of the pickup and the GMC Sierra because of supply issues surrounding the chip shortage.
The expansion should help support demand for the Silverado. As of the first quarter 2022, Chevy trucks’ sales are in third place in the segment behind the pickups from Ram in second place and Ford on top of the market.
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The money will also go towards making the Ingersoll plant capable of building BrightDrop electric delivery vans by December 2022. The factory will retool to produce these models this spring and summer.
BrightDrop is GM’s brand for electric commercial vehicles. Its main product at the marque’s launch is the Zevo 600. The name is a reference to the 600 cubic feet (16.99 cubic meters) of storage. This delivery van is capable of an estimated 250-mile (402-kilometer) range. One hour of plugging into a 120-kilowatt DC fast charger gets back 170 miles (274 kilometers) of range.
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There’s also the smaller Zevo 400 with 400 cubic feet (11.33 cubic meters) of load space. Brightdrop imagines it doing work for grocery drop-offs and telecom maintenance.
The Trace is Brightdrop’s electric pallet for carrying up to 23 cubic feet (0.65 cubic meters) of goods with a 200-pound (90.72 kilograms) payload. It functions for short distances like hauling something heavy from a door to one of the brand’s delivery vans.
Sources: Automotive News, General Motors
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