Renewables

Charging ahead

Calgary duo trying to develop the next generation of electric vehicles

Nathan Armstrong wants to reinvent the automobile — and he wants to do it from Calgary, a city not normally thought of as a centre of automotive design and development.

Armstrong, president of Motive Industries, and his design team are looking for a new approach beyond the existing car design being adopted by auto giants such as General Motors of Canada, Nissan Canada, Magna International and others planning to introduce all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to North America and worldwide.

“We’re looking at designing second-generation EVs [electric vehicles] that can communicate with the power grid,” he says. “The [major vehicle manufacturers] are developing what I call dumb electrics.”

Those “dumb electrics” are essentially modifications of existing vehicles, he says.

Motive, which has seven full-time employees and others on contract, was established four years ago by Armstrong, an automotive engineer, and his partner, auto designer Darren McKeage. Both moved to Calgary (McKeage is a Calgary native) from California.

Armstrong’s argument is that a true electric vehicle needs to be designed from the ground up, something he says has not been the case before now.

To do so, Motive needs to look at using lightweight materials, new battery technologies and other design aspects that he believes haven’t been fully taken into account by mainstream firms, largely because they are aiming at larger markets.

Motive’s approach is to look to niche markets, such as fleet operators.

The company is also working closely with Calgary-based utility Enmax, Hydro-Quebec, BC Hydro and other utilities, as well as with post-secondary technical colleges, such as Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic and Vancouver’s British Columbia Institute of Technology.

The key — and the major reason Motive is working with utilities — is to design electrics that communicate with the power grid, that emphasize the “two-way flow” of power, Armstrong says.

“We think the technology [Motive is developing] will help to load-balance the grid,” he says. For example, the electric car might actually return power to home appliances when it is not being driven.

“The vehicles become an extension of their [vehicle owners’] own power system,” he explains.

Motive is developing electric vehicles that will be delivered as “beta” models to utilities, which will test them.

“It’s a holistic approach that changes the way we use electricity,” says Armstrong.

To achieve that, though, he says “the battery is a key,” and Motive is working with various firms that are developing battery technologies, such as Hydro-Quebec, which has been working on battery technology for many years.

Armstrong says it is necessary to develop various battery technologies since conventional lead acid batteries don’t have enough power for electrics. Most of the new technologies rely on lithium, which is used in consumer electronics.

Motive also wants to work with the Wind Walk development, a project led by TV home renovation star Mike Holmes, which is planning to build an ecologically advanced 400-unit housing project in the Municipal District of Foothills, on the edge of the town of Okotoks. The town is opposing the project because it would add 1,100 people to the area’s population, which it claims its infrastructure can’t support.

Motive still hopes it can work with the developer to create a local grid system that would allow its vehicles to establish the kind of two-way power exchange that is a key to its technology.

Currently, Motive has potential orders for 20 vehicles, including from utilities and Transport Canada. Armstrong also says the company is working on five or six different vehicle designs.

One possibility he envisions is that electrics will be designed to last for many years, with the bodies of the vehicles being changed every few years to make the appearance more contemporary.

PROJECT EVE

Motive’s most widely publicized venture involves its partnership with a Canadian collaborative project founded by it and Toronto Electric, a material handling and electric motor company. That initiative is called Project Eve.

The two are developing the Kestrel, a compact car that holds a driver and up to three passengers. It will achieve a top speed of 135 kilometres an hour and has a range of 40 to 160 kilometres before needing a recharge.

The vehicle first attracted publicity because of what was being used in the car’s body composite: mats of hemp, a plant from the cannabis family. The hemp, made available to Motive by Crown-owned Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures, is being grown in Alberta.

It is costing the partners $1.2 million to develop the vehicle.

Armstrong’s partner at Motive, McKeage, who has a master’s degree in automotive design from England’s Coventry University, says his design background is playing a key role in Project Eve’s overall plan to develop three vehicles, including the compact Kestrel and planned fleet vehicles, such as a delivery van.

He says the partners chose the name Kestrel for the first compact car with the bird of the same name in mind.

“It’s a small, powerful, little falcon-like bird,” McKeage explains. “The look is influenced by cheetahs and sharks, with a small waist but a big chest.”

COLLABORATIONS

Aside from being involved in Project Eve, Motive has designed some prototypes for various vehicle manufacturers and has been retained to do design work for Winnipeg-based Westward Industries, which manufactures a number of niche market vehicles, including delivery vans and parking patrol vehicles.

It also has discussed the natural gas vehicle market with Calgary-based Encana, Canada’s largest natural gas producer and an advocate of more natural gas use in power production and transportation.

Steve Dallas, president of Toronto Electric, one of Canada’s oldest privately owned businesses (it was founded in 1885, 20 years before Alberta became a province), admits the idea of helping to develop electric vehicles has become a bit of an obsession with him.

“I started to design an electric vehicle about six years ago,” he says. “My company engineers and designs cranes, hoists and other highly specialized equipment, all of which are electric. I kept thinking we could design an electric car, given that background.”

So, the company, which has 10 employees, did just that.

He developed a two-passenger car called the A2B, a vehicle he had on display recently in Calgary. It goes up to 99 kilometres an hour and can travel up to 210 kilometres on a single charge.

It comes with programmable dashboard instructions in French and English and is designed mostly for urban applications or fleets.

His company is working with Motive Industries, Electric Mobility Canada and nine other partners on Project Eve, aimed at developing all-Canadian electrics.

Dallas says the A2B and the vehicles that will be developed by Project Eve will need to be priced higher than conventional vehicles of the same size — or even more than mainstream plug-in electrics.

“Everyone thinks it [the A2B] should sell for $15,000, but they have to look at the car in a different way.”

For one thing, because electrics have so few moving parts, they can be driven for 20 years or more, meaning it is more of an investment than a normal vehicle purchase.

Dallas says the first Kestrel should be introduced by the middle of next year, with other Project Eve vehicles to follow.

Meanwhile, he says the partners are hoping for some government financial help in the development, pointing out that American, Chinese and other electric vehicle manufacturers have received billions in government assistance.

“But this is Canada,” he says.

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