Feds invest $19.6M in seven Canadian auto firms
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Major automotive industry funding to help parts suppliers, vehicle tech firms invest in new development programs
Canadian auto parts companies build components for a wide range of automakers in Canada and abroad, including vehicles built at Honda’s Alliston, Ont. plant. PHOTO: Honda
KITCHENER, Ont.—The largest segment of Canada’s manufacturing industry is getting a big boost from the federal government.
Ottawa has announced a nearly $20 million investment in seven Canadian auto parts and vehicle technology companies.
Navdeep Bains, Canada’s minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced the funding April 13 at Pravala Car in Kitchener, Ont.
“These projects… demonstrate how Canada’s innovative automotive suppliers are developing the green technologies that will shape the cars of the future,” Bains said. The minister added the investment—made through the Automotive Supplier Innovation Program—will help Canada’s auto industry grow and become more competitive globally.
The specifics of the seven separate investments are as follows:
- Pravala Car will receive up to $9.7 million to support a program aimed at developing a connected vehicle platform
- Ottawa will provide Markham, Ont.’s Exco Technologies Ltd. with up to $4.6 million, allowing the company to make lighter-weight high-pressure die-cast moulds for power train and structural parts
- Verbom Inc. of Sherbrooke, Que. will receive $2.6 million to further develop a process to form light-weight aluminum body panels and parts
- Working to develop a hot stamping technology that will produce stronger and lighter small auto components, the Electromac Group in Windsor, Ont., will get a contribution of $1.5 million
- With $881,000 from Ottawa, Axiom Plastics in Aurora, Ont., will produce a new hybrid plastic/fabric vehicle component aimed at reducing noise and emissions
- Vancouver, B.C.’s Mojio will work to develop cloud-connected vehicle technologies aimed at improving driver connectivity using a $260,000 investment
- Landau Gage in Windsor, Ont. will use its “unique” laser measurement technology to reduce measurement and inspection time of automotive drive train products with the help of a $121,000 federal investment
