GM converts CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont., to make EV vans A General Motors plant in Ingersoll, Ont., has been converted into an assembly line for electric delivery vans, making it the first full-scale electric vehicle-making facility in Canada.
The first BrightDrop Zevo 600 rolled off the line at the CAMI plant on Monday, marking the reopening of the facility that was temporarily shuttered in May in order to retool itself from making internal combustion engines, into one that builds electric vehicles.
"We are fully committed to an all-electric future," GM Canada president Marissa West told CBC News in an interview. "We're seeing a really high customer demand."
Representatives of the provincial and federal governments, who each kicked in $259 million to help the automaker upgrade the facility, were on hand for a press event commemorating the opening. The total price tag for the facility's upgrade was $1 billion, GM has said previously.
BrightDrop is a unit of GM that focuses on building delivery vehicles for commercial customers, not passengers. Prior to the CAMI upgrading, GM made the BrightDrop vans on a very limited basis at another facility in Michigan.
Similarly, other electric vehicles have been made on a limited basis in Canada, but nothing on the scale of what GM has planned with the BrightDrop launch.
The vehicle itself, the BrightDrop Zevo 600, will be used primarily by commercial customers including FedEx, Walmart, DHL, Verizon and others.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trudeau-ford-electric-vehicle-ingersoll-1.6674348