By Gary S. Vasilash

Each year there are some two million vehicles and $35-billion in auto parts produced in Canada. The country has several top-notch facilities, both in terms of companies that produce things and universities that develop things of an automotive nature.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a plan for a zero-emissions future by 2050. So the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturer’s Association (APMA), being aware of that plan, decided that it would do its part by developing an electric vehicle. A vehicle that is designed and engineered in Canada and is fully assembled using parts, systems and technologies from Canadian suppliers, 58 in all.

Named “Project Arrow” (a tribute to a supersonic jet development program that occurred in Canada in the 1950s), the $20-million (CN), the crossover was designed by the Carleton University School of Industrial Design, engineered by an APMA-led team, and the running prototype was built at Ontario Tech University.

The Project Arrow vehicle had its debut at the 2023 CES in Las Vegas earlier this month.

According to APMA president Flavio Volpe the Project Arrow vehicle had a massively successful reveal. He said that the focus going forward is that if an OEM is interested in taking the crossover to production, it will be as Canadian as it is now (this wouldn’t be the case of, “Quite a crossover. We’ll build it in ________________ (not Canada) with parts from suppliers in _______________ (not Canada).” This won’t happen.)

On this edition of “Autoline After Hours” Volpe provides insights into the vehicle that has a 500-km (a.k.a., 310-mile) range, and 550 hp from its dual-motor setup. The price would be less than $60,000.

One interesting thing that Volpe points out is that the Lexus RX is produced in Cambridge, Ontario, and that that vehicle was one that the Project Arrow team benchmarked.

Volpe talks with “Autoline’s” John McElroy, freelance writer John Voelcker and me.

Watch this “Autoline After Hours” right here.