Canada plans to launch its own fully-electric crossover, a vehicle envisioned by the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) and currently known as Project Arrow. In terms of its size, it will be positioned between the Tesla Model Y and Model X and it is also being benchmarked against them, as well as against the Volkswagen ID.4.
The project’s aim is to not only create an actual, viable electric vehicle that would compete with the aforementioned models and others like them, but also to prove that Canada’s parts supply network can come together on a big project. The crossover’s design was created by a team of students from Carleton University, and from what we understand, it will mostly make it to production unchanged.
They do plan on changing some parts of the design in order to make it easier to manufacture, as well as keep the number of parts that go into its construction as low as possible. The vehicle itself will be kept as simple as possible for both ease of manufacturing, but to also keep its final retail sale price down.
According to Project Arrow’s Chief Engineer, Fraser Dunn,
You just have to drive down the road nowadays and any SUV on the road has plastic bits on plastic bits on plastic bits for no reason.
Even structural elements that are normally hidden away behind plastic trim will be on show and become part of the design.
One of the biggest hurdles that this project faces is finding a supplier for the vehicle’s battery pack. Its storage capacity and quality will ultimately define whether the vehicle is good and desirable or not, according to Dunn, who also said they are working on a never-before-seen battery thermal control and preconditioning system for the vehicle.
Keeping batteries at optimum temperature, even in very cold weather, will be a necessity for the vehicle to perform well in its home market. Dunn added that
People like Tesla do take cold-climate seriously, but it isn’t their priority.
The legacy for Arrow from the Canadian supply chain perspective and from my point of view would be putting the Canadian flag on the international market of zero-emission vehicles.
We wanted to make sure we were … designing the car in a manner that basically was credible for a vehicle that was shooting for between 50,000 and 60,000 units per year
The production version of Project Arrow is expected to be shown to the public for the first time in 2023, possibly at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), priced between $40,000 and $60,000.
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Source: Automotive News Canada