Canadian electric car Project Arrow will be unveiled on October 19

11 October 2022

Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) from Canada will unveil an electric car on October 19. The unusual story here is the fact that APMA is not a car manufacturer, neither it wants to dive into EV manufacturing. The organization simply is building a fully functioning EV, together with an autonomous driving system, to showcase the capabilities of Canadian automotive suppliers.

Apparently more than 400 of the suppliers are interested in taking part in the project, which at this stage is little more than a chassis and a body, according to the APMA president Flavio Volpe. The organization is keen to showcase its progress on Project Arrow, which is being developed with help from the Canadian government - to the tune of $3.9 million.

The project is well underway and its engineering part will be finalized by December, just in time for its global premiere at the CES 2023 in January. The vehicle’s chassis is 3D printed from polymers and during the preview next week, the car will be in an advanced stage of assembly. It means the preview will be rather limited and will only involve the exterior of the vehicle.

It is an unusual way to market skills and capabilities of the automotive suppliers, but it works rather well. The car already created a lot of interest and having an actual working example rather than just renderings can really make a difference. Global manufacturers will be able to inspect the car in detail and taking into account the rather short development time, they should be impressed.

APMA has no plans to manufacture the car unfortunately, which is a shame because it does look rather interesting but - that was never a plan. Project Arrow is just an expensive marketing campaign and for the sake of Canadian dollars, let’s hope it pays off.

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