Automotive News Canada - August 2016 - 26

FINAL ASSEMBLY

08.16

LETTING LOOSE A BIT ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE

'PILOT' PROGRAM IN ONTARIO
Government joins (most of) the rest of the country and allows
three-wheeled 'legal rockets' to be let loose on its roads

THE LANDSCAPE OF VEHICLES IN
Canada just got a little more interesting;
with one less wheel, but perfectly legal.
Ontario recently changed its legislation, launching a 10-year pilot program
that allows three-wheeled vehicles onto its roads.
You could hear
trike riders in

Quebec, B.C., Manitoba and the Yukon
rejoice; Ontario's move brings it into
line with similar legislation in those
provinces.
The three-wheeled vehicles are different than three-wheeled motorcycles. They have steering wheels and

Campagna Motors calls the six-cylinder-powered
T-Rex a "legal rocket." Well, it wasn't legal in Ontario,
but it will be.

controls like a car as well as passenger
sit-in seats and drivers only need a "G"
licence to drive one.
For the uninformed, the choices are
interesting. There is a 2.4-litre 173-horsepower Polaris Slingshot for $26,000
that goes from zero-to-100 km/h in less
than five seconds. Bombardier sells the
made-in-Canada Can-Am Spyder, sought
after by long-distance touring riders. Or
there's something more extreme such
as the $57,000 T-Rex. This one is made
in Quebec and is characterized as a
"legal rocket" by the company's owner
at Campagna Motors. The company has
a new deal this year with BMW to
buy 1.6-litre six-cylinder engines
and transmissions for the T-Rex GT
model. The T-Rex weighs less than 500
kilograms.
Ontario residents certainly have
interesting choices for the road, at least
in summer.

THIS NUMBER
HYUNDAI AND ITS ELANTRA NOT
only had a July to remember - winning the sales crown across the country for the month - the company had
a number that is hard to fathom. Sales
of Hyundai's smallest crossover, the
recently redesigned Tucson, are on
a tear, up 85 percent year-to-date.
Hyundai, overall, has moved into overdrive, putting the pressure on perennial
sales leader Honda.

CHRIS URMSON 'READY FOR A FRESH CHALLENGE'
CANADIAN ENGINEER CHRIS URMSON
created his own search on Google News alert
recently, and likely not in the way he intended.
Urmson, chief technical officer of Google's
self-driving-car efforts, and a computer engineering graduate of the
University of Manitoba in 1998,
announced he's leaving as the
Internet company moves the project from research into the creation
of products.
Many consider Urmson to be
the architect of Google's automated-driving project since the early
days in 2009. Some 3.2 million kilometres later, Urmson is the one credited with
his hands on the wheel ... or not.
He's leaving as car manufacturers place
more emphasis on the technology and race
to be the first to field vehicles that don't need
human drivers.
"I am ready for a fresh challenge," he said

DID GOOGLE
LOSE ITS MIND?
SUMMER DEALS:

MAYBE THE HEAT IS GETTING TO THEM
AS SALES CONTINUE TO SIZZLE
across the country, and records are
predicted for the year, something else
is heating up in August: Crazy deals
for consumers.
Crossovers and SUVs are driving
the surge, and that's where the competition and incentives come in.
The deals are more creative than
ever; we're not just talking about cash
on the hood.
With Mazda having recently
launched a 2016.5 version of the CX-5,
it released it as part of its "Summer
Escape Event" (Ford must be rolling
Mazda is giving buyers of
the CX-5 the perk of two
nights lodging
within Canada.

its eyes over that one) which offers
buyers of any new Mazda a complimentary two-night hotel stay within
Canada.
Ford is in the midst of its Ford
Employee Pricing Promotion and eligible Costco members can qualify for an
additional $1,000 rebate on many Ford
vehicles.
And to try and convert new buyers,
Jeep is offering up to $2,000 in "conquest" rebates, in addition to incentives already offered, the Globe and
Mail daily newspaper reported.

in an online post Aug. 5.
Last year, Google hired auto-industry leader John Krafcik to take over the car project.
Krafcik called Urmson an "incredible colleague & leader" on Twitter.
"The mission is in capable hands,"
Urmson wrote in his online post.
"There are many other problems or products this talented group of people could work
on, but they've chosen self-driving cars
because they understand the impact their
work can have on making our roads safer and
bringing everyday destinations within reach
for millions of people."
The question is, did he jump, or was
Urmson thrown under the Google car (figuratively speaking, of course)?
The New York Times reported Urmson
was unhappy with the recent direction of the
project and had argued about it with Google
co-founder Larry Page.
When asked about the reports of him being
unhappy, he said, "Yeah I've seen them."

QUOTABLE QUOTE
The general public
and the media have no
concept of the spinoff tax
benefits of this industry ...
if the Chrysler Bramalea
plant or GM close those
plants, that would be very
bad news for Ontario, for
the taxpayers and the people [of Ontario].

DON WALKER,
Magna International
Inc. CEO in a July
27 interview with
Bloomberg

Manitoba appears completely blind to an electric future
"THE POLITICAL PRESSURE IS TO
reduce the demand for hydroelectricity, not
so much to reduce the province's carbon
footprint."
While Automotive News Canada does not
have an official statement from Manitoba
Hydro (yet) or the provincial government,

that damning quote from Winnipeg Tesla
agent Jeff Janzen might show just how far
behind some parts of Canada are in terms
of an electric future. There are zero provincial rebates for electric cars and hybrids.
Meanwhile, Germany considers selling
only zero-emission new cars by 2030?

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - August 2016