Project Arrow (partially) unveiled at 2022 APMA conference

WINDSOR, Ont. — Like children peeling back the wrapping paper of a Christmas gift hoping to catch a sneak peek without mom or dad finding out, suppliers caught a narrow glimpse of Project Arrow at the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association Conference in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday.

The association pulled back just enough of the linen cover to tease some 300 or so suppliers in attendance at Caesars Windsor.

To see the rest, they’ll have to fly to Las Vegas in January and attend the CES, where the fully electric, (almost) all-Canadian autonomous vehicle will make its global debut.

More than 500 Canadian companies expressed interest in working on the project and the APMA narrowed it down to just 58 — 35 per cent of which are from the Windsor-Essex-Chatham region in southwestern Ontario. And that’s why APMA President Flavio Volpe chose to offer a fleeting glimpse of the vehicle here, in “the heartbeat of the auto sector” in Canada.

Officials trucked the vehicle down Highway 401, some 422 kilometres from Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, where the build is taking place.

Even as the vehicle sat on the floor among exhibitors in Windsor, engineers and technicians continued to work on doors and interior back in Oshawa.

“The bees are still working back at the hive,” insisted John Komar, executive director of the Automotive Centre of Excellence at Ontario Tech University, where it will eventually undergo wind tunnel and seasonal testing.

"We can put it through four seasons in one day," Komar said. 

While not much was revealed in Windsor, the midsize crossover arrived without doors, a hatchback and hood. It was on a cart, not wheels, and had no roof or interior.

But, rest assured, “the interior goes in like Lego,” said Colin Singh Dhillon, chief technical officer for the APMA.

The shell of the vehicle did contain a chassis, which was made from a 3D printer at Toronto-based Xaba.

Xaba owns patents for a unique process, which combines composite polymer materials with metals, and the machine technology (an intelligent, large-scale additive manufacturing machine) used to facilitate the 3D printing of the chassis. While Xaba is Canadian, it worked with its partner, Breton Spa in Italy, to build the printer, which, according to the company, is now “the world’s fastest large-scale composite 3D printer.”

Beneath the vehicle, there are Martinrea International’s brake lines with GrapheneGuard, which won a 2022 Automotive News PACE Award for innovation. The GrapheneGuard eliminates the need for extra protective layers on standard nylon-coated brake lines, yielding abrasion protection and weight savings. When used in place of traditional nylon and coextruded polypropylene layers, GrapheneGuard can provide weight savings of as much as 25 per cent while simultaneously demonstrating superior abrasion protection, improved strength and better chemical resistance.

On display among the exhibitors were the vehicle’s patented cooling seats, produced by Toronto’s Woodbridge Group and never used before. 

Wheels by Fastco of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., were also on display, as was lidar technology from Leddartech.

Canadian telecommunications giant Telus is the exclusive provider of 5G connectivity to the Arrow. It will help enable next-generation services such as vehicle telematics, infotainment and driver assistance services in the vehicle.

While the goal was to create a vehicle using only Canadian companies, the APMA realized that not everything needed could be had in Canada. But, executives insist “more than 95 per cent” of the vehicle is Canada-made. Komar was quick to note that finding gaps is a silver lining, allowing for the industry to know what’s missing in Canada.

“We’re building one car. But we’re going to show everybody that we have everything that they have in Silicon Valley to have a startup culture,” Volpe said. “We haven’t had a Canadian car company in a hundred years, for lots of reasons. But it’s not because we don’t have the technology, the design, the engineering know-how or the people. 

“What we’re hoping to do on this unprecedented collaboration is to show that the question that needs to be asked: ‘Why not?’”