Transit Connect Cargo Van

Make
Ford
Segment
Van

General Motors isn't just a car company anymore. It's going to space, it's selling its battery tech to other carmakers and other industries, it even has an internal project incubator that's looking to car insurance and commercial deliveries. It has already introduced the BrightDrop EV600, a van that Fed Ex will use to transport goods. But GM CEO Mary Barra has now said that more commercial vehicles are coming.

"We will have electric solutions for almost any hauling or towing job you can imagine," Barra said. "Both will complement BrightDrop and keep our commercial fleet market share growing, and we'll share more details about these products as we move forward."

The first will be a full-size EV cargo van for Chevy and the second will be a medium duty truck. They'll both use the company's Ultium cells for power and possibly get some Hydrotech hydrogen fuel cells too. Rumor has it we might see them in 2025. Barra explained all of this in GM's second quarter earnings results conference call.

Not to be outdone by Amazon and Rivian vans, or the Ford e-Transit, Barra said that GM will be "adding two battery cell plants in the US, beyond the two currently under construction. They will create thousands of good jobs, and we'll add more capacity as demand grows."

Rounding out the company's holistic approach to clean energy, Barra noted that GM wants an EV value chain that is "secure, sustainable, scalable and cost competitive." She mentioned its new plan to mine for lithium in the United States and reiterated that the company plans to source 100% renewable energy to power its US sites by 2030, its global sites by 2035 and it wants to become carbon neutral globally by 2040.

We talk a lot about getting conventionally powered passenger vehicles off the road almost daily, but the rest of the transportation industry is responsible for about 40% of greenhouse gasses. We'll need to take care of both to put this planet back on the right track.