General Motors Cooks Up A New Electric Van Plan With Hyundai

Last Updated on: 7th August 2025, 10:49 am

General Motors and Hyundai have just announced the first five vehicles to roll off the assembly line under a new co-development collaboration, aimed at boosting both of their sales profile in the Americas. The news is not particularly newsworthy for the vehicle electrification movement, except that one of those vehicles is an electric van for the North American market. That’s of interest, considering that GM already has an electric van under its belt, the Chevrolet BrightDrop. So, what gives?

One Electric Van, Four Other Vehicles

While the news is disappointing for EV advocates, it is consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding GM and Hyundai signed last year. “GM and Hyundai will look for ways to leverage their complementary scale and strengths to reduce costs and bring a wider range of vehicles and technologies to customers faster,” GM explained in a press release dated September 12, 2024.

By wider range, they meant wider range. In addition to collaborating on battery-electric vehicles under the agreement, GM also listed hydrogen technologies and conventional ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. “The two leading global OEMs also will review opportunities for combined sourcing in battery raw materials, steel and other areas,” GM added.

“GM and Hyundai have complementary strengths and talented teams. Our goal is to unlock the scale and creativity of both companies to deliver even more competitive vehicles to customers faster and more efficiently,” explained GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra.

The general idea is to shave costs down by manufacturing the same basic platforms, which each company can then trick out according to the unique stylings of their respective brands.

Despite the abrupt change in federal electrification policy this year — to say nothing of the tariff complications — or perhaps because of one or both of them, GM and Hyundai finally rolled out the initial details yesterday.

“The two companies will co-develop four vehicles for the Central and South American market, including a compact SUV, car and pick-up, as well as a mid-size pick-up, all with the flexibility to use either internal combustion or hybrid propulsion systems,” the two companies announced on August 6, emphasizing that the rollout zeroes in on market strength.

The announcement also included the fifth vehicle, an electric commercial van to be developed by GM and Hyundai specifically for North American commercial electric van enthusiasts.

About Those Central And South American EV Markets

In yesterday’s announcement, Hyundai and GM noted that the goal was to produce a total of 800,000 units per year among all five vehicles once production ramps up.

That’s a lot of vehicles. Too bad the Central and South American markets will get the short end of the stick in terms of vehicle electrification, but all is not lost. Latin America has become friendly ground for hybrid vehicles. However, if GM and Hyundai aim to make a significant dent in carbon emissions, those hybrids better outsell the ICE vehicles.

On a more positive note, the announcement specifies that the four hybrid vehicles will sport hybrid propulsion systems. That’s an important distinction. A research team in Columbia anticipates that full and plug-in hybrid propulsion systems will make a significant impact on vehicle emissions in Latin America.

“The vehicle fleets in Latin America are increasingly incorporating hybrid electric vehicles due to the economic and non-economic incentives provided by governments aiming to reduce energy consumption and emissions in the transportation sector,” the research team explains in their recently published paper, “Hybrid Electric Vehicles as a Strategy for Reducing Fuel Consumption and Emissions in Latin America.”

“Results show that the introduction of full hybrids and plug-in hybrid vehicles improve fleet fuel consumption and emissions,” the researcher team summarized, adding that “when the market share of hybrid vehicles is high, energy consumption and emissions are significantly reduced.”

For the record, the study also showed that the MHEV (Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle) category is practically useless as a decarbonization tool. MHEVs deploy a small electric motor to add an occasional power boost to an ICE engine, along with a battery to collect energy from regenerative breaking.

What’s The Big Deal About A New Electric Van?

As for the North American market, the choice of an electric van to fill out the five-vehicle collaboration reflects the growth potential of e-commerce and delivery fleets. Vans can also fill the needs of small businesses and self-employed workers, with a more spacious and secure interior than a pickup truck can offer.

Ford place a big bet on the electric van field a few years ago when it introduced the E-Transit electric version of its popular Transit commercial van. Around the same time, Rivian also hooked up with Amazon for an exclusive deal on electric delivery vans. The exclusivity came to an end in February of this year, leaving the field open for other electric van-curious fleets to dive in.

Meanwhile, back in January of 2021, CleanTechnica’s Carolyn Fortuna took note when GM launched its comprehensive BrightDrop last-mile delivery service with a focus on fleet electrification, including electric carts and pallets as well as vans.

BrightDrop began as a standalone branch of GM. Last year GM added BrightDrop to its Chevrolet branch, opening up new opportunities for Chevy dealers to sell the vans.

That’s been a tough row to hoe. As chronicled by the automotive press, sales of the van been painfully slow this year despite racking up some good reviews. The collaboration with Hyundai reportedly involves producing a smaller electric van under the BrightDrop banner, indicating that GM has spotted an opening in the downsized segment.

The plan calls for Hyundai to lead on development of the new electric van, which will be manufactured in the US beginning in 2028 or shortly thereafter.

When Will Tesla Produce An Electric Van?

Of course, no story about electric vehicles is complete without a mention of industry leader Tesla. The company’s CEO, Elon Musk, has dropped a hint here and there about the possibility of introducing a Tesla passenger van, but for now the field is clear for other auto makers to grab a slice of growth potential in the electric van market.

S&P Global assessed the commercial vehicle market earlier this year and described a strong electrification trend despite flat sales overall among all vehicle classes.

On the down side, the same analysis indicates that the overall commercial van market has yet to recover from the COVID-related buying spree. “Cargo van registrations have decreased by 18% since 2019 and by 2% from 2023. This change follows a pandemic-driven surge of cargo van registrations, driven by the demand for last-mile delivery vehicles,” S&P observers.

Still, commercial vans eventually age out, and the advantages of fleet electrification could also motivate owners to ditch their ICE vans before the end of their useful lifespan.

Photo (cropped): General Motors aims for a refresh of its BrightDrop electric van under a new collaboration with Hyundai (courtesy of GM).