In the realm of all-electric vans, the Ford E-Transit has proven to be a popular entity among commercial fleet customers, routinely ranking atop the sales charts in that segment. Several others have tried to eat into the E-Transit’s market share, but with little success thus far. That list includes Brightdrop – which General Motors recently decided to fold into the Chevrolet brand – and just treated to a refresh for the 2026 model year. Regardless, it seems as if the Brightdrop EV van lineup isn’t selling too terribly well, prompting GM to pause production temporarily.
According to GM Authority, the automaker has informed the Canadian union, Unifor, that it’s pausing Brightdrop production and temporarily laying off workers at the CAMI assembly plant in Ingersol, Ontario, effective yesterday, April 14th. Those workers will be brought back for a limited production run in May, after which the plant will be idled until October as it’s retooled to prepare for changes imposed as part of the van’s 2026 model year update.
Trouble is, when Brightdrop production does resume in October, it will be with just one shift, meaning that around 500 workers will be laid off indefinitely. As one might imagine, this news didn’t go over well with Unifor, which is aiming to protect those jobs. “This is a crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “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.”
In the meantime, Ford continues to face tremendous demand for the E-Transit, which in some cases is backlogged with orders – including some stemming from the United States Postal Service (USPS). Production of the Blue Oval’s full-size EV van commenced for the 2025 model year back in January, and it’s receiving some updates for the new year, too – including making the larger 89 kWh battery standard across the entire lineup.
Comments
I don’t blame people it’s very ugly
I agree and noticed that GM vehicles keeps getting uglier but this E-Van takes the cake!
It’s right up there with the ugly Maverick!
The real reason you ask? All the Canadian ‘green’ government money ran out. This whole program was a joke from the start. They had to push one of them out for the initial press conference because they had none running yet. Now all the parking lots around the Cami plant in Ingersoll, Ontario are full of these abominations. Nobody wants them and the union is pushing to have the Canadian government buy them for Canada Post, another dying entity.
All these articles that start off with Ford Rival just so they can talk about stuff that has nothing to do with Ford.