Close to six months after announcing a massive order from GM’s BrightDrop, logistics and vehicle rental specialist Ryder is deploying its first batch of electric vans across the US. The deployment kicks off Ryder’s process in adding 4,000 BrightDrop EVs to its fleet over the next two years.
Ryder System, Inc. ($R) is a logistics and transportation company whose vast fleet of commercial vehicles you’ve probably seen on roads somewhere in North America. In addition to warehouse and distribution, last-mile deliveries, and freight brokerage, Ryder offers commercial vehicle rentals and leasing.
The company currently manages a fleet of 260,000 commercial vehicles, providing services in the US, Canada, and Mexico. As GM’s all-electric, last-mile delivery unit, BrightDrop too is a US-based company, although its electric vans are currently built at GM’s CAMI facility in Ingersoll, Ontario.
BrightDrop has since delivered its Zevo 600 vans to customers in Canada like FedEx Express and most recently expanded to Mexico as well. This past April, BrightDrop gained another huge commercial customer in Ryder, who committed to an order of 4,000 electric vans.
Today, the first of those commercial vehicles have gone into operation across four major metropolitan areas in the US and are now available to rent.
Credit: Ryder System, Inc.
BrightDrop’s electric vans now available to rent from Ryder
According to an update from Ryder, its first wave of BrightDrop Zevo 600 electric vans have been deployed across its rental fleet, kicking off its order of 200 EVs ordered this year. Ryder and BrightDrop are not currently sharing how many vans have gone into operation, but it is a welcomes step toward deploying all 4,000 on order by the end of 2025.
The Ryder branded Zevo 600s seen above are now available for rent in Santa Fe Springs, California, Hayward, California, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Long Island City, New York. To familiarize local customers with its newly acquired commercial EV technology, Ryder has hosted a series of “Ride and Drive” events featuring the BrightDrop electric vans and charger piles from ChargePoint.
The Zevo 600 offers a range up to 250 miles on a single charge and can deliver a payload capacity between 1,460 and 2,450 lbs. Its cargo capacity is 615 cubic feet. The electric vans will operate as part of transportation specialist’s RyderElectric+ service, which offers customers a turnkey solution to go all-electric, providing advisors, vehicles, charging infrastructure, and maintenance for one price. Ryder’s president of fleet management solutions, Tom Haven’s spoke to today’s EV milestone for the company:
Working with companies such as BrightDrop keeps Ryder at the forefront of identifying and testing advanced and emerging vehicle technology, and we’re excited to incorporate these new EVs into our fleet. Through our partnerships with technology providers and equipment manufacturers, Ryder can offer commercial fleet management solutions that drive sustainability and operational goals for our customers.
Ryder has already laid out a five phase plan to eventually electrify its entire fleet and moves a step closer with this first electric van delivery from BrightDrop. With thousands more EVs due to arrive from CAMI through 2025, we are sure to see a lot more Zevo 600s wrapped in Ryder red hitting rental lots soon… as long as GM can keep up with production, that is.
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A team of white hat European hackers using their brains, keyboards, and a couple of bits and baubles from eBay managed to take control of a 2020 Nissan LEAF and violate just about every privacy and safety regulation in the process.
The best part: they recorded the whole thing.
Budapest-based cybersecurity experts PCAutomotive were able to exploit a number of vulnerabilities in a 2020 Nissan LEAF that enabled the white hat team to geolocate and track the car, record the texts and conversations happening inside the car, playing media back through the car’s speakers, and even (this is the genuinely terrifying dangerous part) turning the steering wheel while the car was moving. (!?)
Maybe the scariest part of this hack, however, is how seemingly easy it was to pull off by starting with a “test bench simulator” built using parts from eBay and exploiting a vulnerability in the LEAF’s DNS C2 channel and Bluetooth protocol.
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The PCAutomotive team gave a hugely detailed 118-page presentation of their exploit at black hat Asia 2025, which we’ve included at the bottom of this post, in case the original link goes dead. If you’re into that sort of thing, the fun stuff starts around page 27. And, if you’re not, just know that all the vulnerabilities were disclosed to Nissan and its suppliers between 02AUG2023 and 12SEP2024 (p. 116/118), and the “attack” itself can be seen in the video below that. Enjoy!
Summary of vulnerabilities
CVE-2025-32056 – Anti-Theft bypass
CVE-2025-32057 – app_redbend: MiTM attack
CVE-2025-32058 – v850: Stack Overflow in CBR processing
CVE-2025-32059 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [0]
CVE-2025-32060 – Absence of a kernel module signature verification
CVE-2025-32061 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [1]
CVE-2025-32062 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [2]
PCA_NISSAN_009 – Improper traffic filtration between CAN buses
CVE-2025-32063 – Persistence for Wi-Fi network
PCA_NISSAN_012 – Persistence through CVE-2017-7932 in HAB of i.MX 6
Unfortunately, this is also one of those posts that some of the more clueless anti-EV hysterics will point to and say, “See!? EVs can get hacked!” But the reality is that virtually any car with electric power steering (EPS), electronic throttle controls, brake-by-wire, etc. can be hacked in a similar way. But, while steering a target’s car into an oncoming semi might be a great way to pull off a covert CIA assassination, the more worrying issue here is the breach of privacy and recording – unless you want to spend some time in El Salvadoran prison, I guess.
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A major new EV battery factory is being built in Sunderland, bringing 1,000 new jobs with it. AESC, Nissan’s battery partner, is behind the £1 billion ($1.33 billion) plant, which will boost the UK’s EV battery production by six times, enough to power 100,000 electric cars annually.
The 12 GWh capacity plant, AESC’s second battery plant in Sunderland, will be powered by 100% net-zero carbon energy. That big jump in capacity helps position Britain as a global player in EV manufacturing while pushing forward the country’s net-zero goals.
The investment is getting a serious financial lift from the British government. Through a combination of support from the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance, the project is unlocking £680 million in financing from major banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, SMBC Group, Societe Generale, and BBVA, that covers the construction and operation of the battery factory. Another £320 million is coming from private investment and fresh equity from AESC. On top of all that, the government’s Automotive Transformation Fund is pitching in with £150 million in grant funding.
This deal follows closely on the heels of the new UK-US trade agreement announced a day earlier, which cuts car export tariffs from 27.5% down to 10% for up to 100,000 UK-made vehicles – nearly the total number exported last year. That move could save car companies hundreds of millions of pounds and help protect good-paying jobs in manufacturing hubs like Sunderland.
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visited AESC in Sunderland, where she met with staff and local leaders to discuss what this means for the Northeast and the British car industry.
“This investment follows hot on the heels of yesterday’s landmark economic deal with the US, which will save thousands of jobs in the industry,” Reeves said.
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It’s about the future of their jobs. Ford workers at two plants in western Germany are set to go on strike on Wednesday, their works council chief said on Monday.
Ford is facing a worker strike in Germany
In November, Ford announced it would cut around 4,000 jobs in Europe by 2027 as part of a restructuring, primarily in Germany and the UK. That’s still about 14% of its European workforce.
The American automaker said the move comes after it has incurred “significant losses” in recent years and a “highly disruptive market” with new EVs quickly gaining market share.
Ford blamed slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and a weak economic situation. It also plans to slow production at its Cologne EV plant, where the electric Explorer and Capri are built.
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Last week, IG Metall members voted in favor of “industrial action” with 93.5% of votes in favor of a strike. “Ford must act now—otherwise, we will go through with it,” said Kerstin D. Klein, Chief Representative of IG Metall Cologne-Leverkusen.
Ford Explorer EV production in Cologne (Source: Ford)
Ford is facing an influx of new competition, including Chinese EV makers like BYD. BYD’s overseas sales are surging with a fifth straight month of growth in April.
BYD even outsold Tesla in Germany last month, with 1,566 vehicles registered. In comparison, Tesla had just 855, and Ford saw 9,534 registrations.
Ford’s electric vehicles in Europe from left to right: Puma Gen-E, Explorer, Capri, and Mustang Mach-E (Source: Ford)
On top of this, Ford, like most of the industry, is preparing for more disruption with Trump’s auto tariffs. After releasing Q1 earnings last week, Ford warned that the tariffs could cost up to $2.5 billion this year.
During Ford’s earnings call, CFO Sherry House said that recent EV launches in Europe, including the Explorer, Capri, and Puma Gen-E, helped more than double Model e’s wholesale volume in Q1.
After early success in the US, Ford also launched its “Power Promise” promotion in Europe, offering EV buyers a free home charger and several other perks.