Auto belt anxiety: The EV that left 1,100 London

By: Brian Williams

Proudly mounted on a podium outside the General Motors factory in Ingersoll is an electric cargo van that many thought would buy its workers a decade of job stability.

Instead, the

BrightDrop delivered pink slips

.

Citing weak sales and a challenging market, GM pulled the plug on the delivery van in late October, ending production at its Cami Assembly plant in Southwestern Ontario.

The factory had undergone a $1-billion retooling – with help from taxpayers –

to pivot to the commercial vehicle from passenger vehicles such as the Chevy Equinox

that it had built for years.

Left with no product to build as GM evaluates what’s next, 1,100 laid-off workers face an uncertain future. The plant had been idled since May amid sluggish sales of the BrightDrop, but nearly ha