GM’s Ancient Commercial Vans Are Going Away in 2025: Report
The platforms the Chevy Express and GMC Savana ride on are nearly 30 years old. The last styling refresh happened in 2003.
The ubiquitous, gas-powered General Motors vans could finally be saying goodbye... in a few more years. According to Autoweek citing a "competitive analysis source," the Chevy Express and its GMC Savana sibling will officially end production after the 2025 model year is finished and will be replaced by all-new electric vans for 2026.
The publication says the new full-size vans will use GM's very size-adaptable Ultium platform and resemble the BrightDrop Zevo 600 delivery van, albeit in a smaller form. That Ultium skateboard architecture also serves as the base for the General's consumer EVs too, namely the new GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq—our man James Gilboy's first impressions of which you can read here and here.
When I reached out to GM for comment, a spokesperson responded, ”We have said in the past that as part of GM’s larger EV acceleration plans that we will add two new vehicles to our commercial portfolio. The first is a full-sized battery electric cargo van and the second is a medium-duty truck that will put both Ultium and our Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell technology to work. We have not disclosed timing, names or shared any other details, so any articles reporting more are purely speculative.”
Take that as you will.
Chevrolet's Express work van has rocked the same body style for almost 20 years now, with the last major redesign happening in 2003. If Autoweek's sources are on point, it'll mark the end of a 22-year run by the time the final copies roll off the assembly line. If we're counting the pre-facelift years that began in 1996, the Express and Savana will have been around for nearly three decades.
Electric GM vans are already out there with BrightDrop recently delivering its first 150 vehicles to FedEx. The shipping giant reportedly aims to have 2,500 BrightDrop vans in its fleet and become fully electric by 2040.
Arguably even more than regular-person commuting, EVs are especially well-suited to short-haul, "last mile" delivery duty such as the work done by panel vans like the Express, Savana, and Brightdrops. Not only are long journeys that exceed the vehicles' driving range rare in these use cases, but the routes are often highly regimented. With the distances being short, delivery vehicles must also put up with a lot of stop-and-go and are generally driven at lower speeds.
Back in October, GM announced that it would invest $750 million into public EV charging and install 40,000 public chargers across the United States and Canada starting this year. On top of making public charging more common, the company is also working on making plugging in more convenient with a plug-and-play system that eliminates the need to fiddle with any mobile apps, credit cards, or shoddy on-charger screens every time you charge. As the auto giant works to land more commercial customers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more solutions for fleet hub charging as well.
In any case, if this latest Express news is accurate, the e-vans should be coming to the fake FBI flower van space pretty soon.
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