GM cutting jobs, idling Canadian electric van plant due to ‘market demand’

DETROIT — General Motors is cutting production of its all-electric BrightDrop delivery vans at a plant in Canada and will idle the facility through much of this year.

The plant will be reduced from two shifts to one shift — eliminating 500 jobs — after being idled beginning next month for roughly 20 weeks until October. Battery pack assembly at the plant also will be down for two weeks before the prolonged shutdown.

The Detroit automaker on Friday confirmed the plans for its CAMI assembly plant in Ontario and said the decisions are not related to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“This adjustment is directly related to responding to market demand and re-balancing inventory. Production of BrightDrop and EV battery assembly will remain at CAMI,” GM said in an emailed statement.

Lana Payne, president of Canadian union Unifor, which represents workers at the plant, described the actions as a “crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant.”

“General Motors must do everything in its power to mitigate job loss during this downturn, and all levels of government must step up to support Canadian auto workers and Canadian-made products,” Payne said in a release.

GM launched its BrightDrop vans as a fully owned subsidiary in 2021, before folding it into the company’s fleet business in 2023. It then folded BrightDrop into its Chevrolet brand in 2024.

GM had high expectations of making BrightDrop into a new, lucrative growth business for the automaker, but sales and revenue did not meet the company’s initial expectations.

BrightDrop was expected to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2023. GM declined to disclose BrightDrop’s revenue, but it’s highly unlikely the target was achieved.

In 2023 and 2024, the automaker only sold about 2,000 of the electric vans, according to its sales reports.

The idling plans come weeks after a Detroit Free Press report that hundreds of BrightDrop vehicles were lining a storage lot in Flint, Michigan. 

Unifor said while GM “has indicated it remains committed to the CAMI facility, with upgrades for the 2026 model year, the immediate future remains uncertain without stronger domestic support and fair market access,” citing Trump’s tariffs.

“The reality is the U.S. is creating industry turmoil. Trump’s short-sighted tariffs and rejection of EV technology is disrupting investment and freezing future order projections,” said Payne. “This is creating an opening for China and other foreign automakers to dominate the global EV market while the North America industry risks falling behind.”