EVOLUTION OF AN EV PLANT

GM claims that the conversion of the Cami manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, was the fastest ever in its history. From 2017 until April 2022, the plant built Chevrolet Equinox SUVs. Retooling began in May 2022, and the first BrightDrop van rolled off the line at the end of November 2022, just seven months later.

The first 150 vans, built for FedEx, were manufactured in Michigan at a partner’s plant. Developing the equipment and flow there allowed GM to “develop and home in on what the manufacturing environment needed to look like,” recounted GM Canada CEO Marissa West in an interview.

“We learned a lot. It was done very manually. It was a bit of a prototype assembly line, if you think of it that way. But then we knew exactly what we needed to do in terms of the design of the manufacturing facility when got into the space that we needed.”

Once the retooling began, BrightDrop closed the temporary manufacturing plant and shipped the robots and equipment from the line there to Ingersoll. The Cami plant renovation project included everything from tearing up concrete on the floors, to knocking holes in the side of the building to bring in the huge equipment.

“To accomplish everything that we needed to accomplish in seven months is extraordinary,” West said.

“The ingenuity and the problem solving on the fly really required us to take a completely different approach to retooling a manufacturing plant. So when you talk to anyone from the team, you see an incredible amount of enthusiasm about how they needed to work collaboratively. And it really is a great demonstration of the Canadian can-do, will-do culture that we see in all of our assembly plants.”

The plant is highly automated, with massive robots – one is called Godzilla – taking on much of the heavy lifting in assembling the large pieces of the vans. But there is also a significant human element, with workers from the old Equinox line embracing the chance to learn new skills and work with the automation. Early in the process a team affixes the battery to the underbody with the help of a robotic positioner, while at the end the last step is aiming the headlights with the assistance of another robot.

Full production was slated to begin in January with a single shift and 400 workers. West said that by the end of 2023 there will be three full shifts and 1,200 workers as the BrightDrop Zevo 400 starts production. The company plans to produce 50,000 vans there by the end of 2025.