In a shocking twist, Coachmen might have to pull the plug on its all-electric RVEX after producing a single model of the Type B motorhome.
Coachmen General Manager Zach Eppers said the company was as surprised as anyone when General Motors announced Tuesday that it will no longer produce the BrightDrop 600 chassis that provided RVEX’s base.
“It was kind of not the greatest day yesterday,” Eppers said. “We do have the ability to purchase some units if we want to. We are trying to go through that, but there is still a lot of information that we are waiting to hear before we can make a decision one way or another.”
General Motors confirmed the end of BrightDrop production at its plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. The company said it would not move production to another plant. GM said the commercial electric vehicle market developed more slowly than anticipated. The BrightDrop 400 and 600 vehicles were built as commercial and last-mile delivery vehicles.
RVEX debuted to what Eppers called positive reviews during Elkhart Extravaganza. The motorhome had an expected MSRP of $150,000 and an advertised range of 250 miles on a single charge.
“We have a couple (chassis) here, and we could probably get enough to do production for a year or two with what they currently have built,” Eppers said, “but we have not made a decision yet if we are going to move forward with it or not. It is a very fluid situation right now.”
Eppers said he hopes to have a decision on RVEX’s future in the next two weeks. He said the company could build on existing BrightDrop chassis for now and hope that a new alternative comes along in a year or two.
“From what we have seen out in the field that is produced today, we really like the range of the BrightDrop,” Eppers said. “Some of the other competitors that have similar chassis just do not have that type of range.”
Keeping the motorhome in the $150,000 MSRP price range is also important, Eppers said. The price range was a selling point with dealers who saw RVEX in September. Eppers said dealer reviews were more positive than he expected.
“This is something new and different from anything else out there. That can be scary, quite frankly,” Eppers said. “I think our dealer body that we have is still behind this project. We just want to make sure that if we proceed that it is going to work out for them.”
Eppers said he received dealer commitments for RVEX during Elkhart Extravaganza. He said he has talked with several dealers since General Motors’ announcement Tuesday.
“We are not trying to hide this news from anyone,” Eppers said. “With our dealer partners and our retail customers who have asked, we have told them we will have a decision once we have more information. I wish I knew which way we were going to go at this point, but there are still too many unknowns.”
Coachmen’s RVEX is not the only RV built on the General Motors chassis. Grounded RVs began building on BrightDrop two years ago. The company released its third generation of the vehicle, the G3, this summer.
Grounded CEO Sam Shapiro said his company is “platform agnostic” and that it will move forward with a variety of chassis, including the Ford e-Transit and Harbinger BEV. He said conversations with other OEMs are ongoing to include additional platforms in the future.
“We build the smart, high-tech, modular workspace or living space on top of the chassis: the design, materials, power system and Grounded+ software that turn a vehicle into a modern, connected mobile healthcare vehicle, command center, camper van, coffee shop and more,” Shapiro said. “The application layer on top of the vehicle is our product.”
