Automotive News Canada - December 2023 - 16

16
* DECEMBER 2023
2023ALL-STARS
A MAN OF ACTION
FLAVIO VOLPE
PRESIDENT
AUTOMOTIVE PARTS
MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION
WITHOUT QUESTION, FLAVIO
Volpe is one of the auto industry's fiercest
champions.
Since being appointed president of
the Automotive Parts Manufacturers'
Association (APMA) in 2014, Volpe has
BELIEVER IN CANADA
MARISSA
WEST
PRESIDENT
GENERAL MOTORS CANADA
MARISSA WEST WAS RAISED IN
Michigan, but since taking over as
president and managing director of
General Motors Canada in March
2022, she has become an outspoken
advocate for Canadian auto production.
Shortly
after assuming the role,
West congratulated the team at the
CAMI facility in Ingersoll, Ont., for
pulling off the company's fastest-ever
transformation to produce its new
BrightDrop electric delivery vans.
" Canada, " she said, " has . . . the ability
to deliver on
aggressive
targets. "
Under her
leadership,
the development
of
GM's electric
vehicle
supply chain
in Canada
continues
to grow.
In March,
the company,
along
with its joint-venture partner, South
Korea's Posco Future M, announced
plans for a $1-billion-plus battery
cathode active materials plant in
Bécancour, Que. And in February,
GM Canada announced plans to build
motors for electric vehicles at its St.
Catharines, Ont., propulsion plant. It
was the first such move by any automaker
building vehicles in Canada.
This will add about 500 employees
to the 1,100 staff who are building
engines and transmissions for internal-combustion
vehicles.
" GM Canada's investments in
our all-electric future will keep
Canada front and centre in the North
American auto industry, " West said.
She comes by her auto credentials
honestly: Three generations of her
family have worked for GM as engineers
and factory employees. West, 42,
has been with GM since starting as
a student intern in 2001 and has held
engineering roles in several departments.
Before
moving to Canada, she led
GM's pickup-development program,
launching new versions of some of
the automaker's best-selling and most
profitable pickups.
defended the sector inside
and outside Canada and
challenged it to be its best
self.
At CES in Las Vegas in
January, Volpe unveiled
Project Arrow, an APMAled
initiative that built
Canada's first zero-emission
concept vehicle.
The project got off the
ground in 2020, intended
as a rolling business card to showcase
the capabilities of Canadian suppliers
to the world. It proceeded through the
chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic -
POUNDING THE
PAVEMENT TO
WIN BILLIONS
IN BUSINESS
VIC FEDELI
ONTARIO MINISTER OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT, JOB CREATION AND TRADE
THE AUTO INDUSTRY IS ON AN
investment spree of historic proportions
in Canada.
The lion's share of the more than
$35 billion of committed spending
over the last three years has landed
in Ontario, and the province's minister
of economic development, job creENSURING
EVS CAN
BEAT THE COLD
JOSH WALTON
ENGINEERING GROUP MANAGER
GM KAPUSKASING PROVING GROUNDS
AT GENERAL MOTORS'
Kapuskasing Proving Grounds in
northern Ontario, Josh Walton
ensures that the electric vehicles of
the future can withstand harsh winters,
a prime concern to Canadian
customers considering the switch to
EVs.
Walton, engineering group manager,
and his team of eight engineers
have already tested the GMC
Hummer pickup and Cadillac Lyriq
crossover. Several other EVs are
POLITICS ASIDE
CHRYSTIA
FREELAND
FEDERAL FINANCE MINISTER
DOUG FORD
ONTARIO PREMIER
AN UNUSUAL ERA OF DÉTENTE
between the federal Liberal government
and the Ontario Progressive
Conservatives over funding auto
investments has not been without its
setbacks, but one appears to have led
to a solution to a nagging problem.
Despite cooperation to land the
$5 billion LG Energy Solution and
being tested five to seven years ahead
of production.
Walton was born in Oshawa, Ont.,
a critical hub of General Motors'
Canadian operations. He was educated
in computer and systems engineering
at Durham College in Oshawa
and earned a bachelor's degree in
information technology from the
University of Phoenix.
He landed what he called " my
Stellantis battery
plant in Windsor,
Ont., a disagreement
more than
a year later over
the funding commitments
of the
two governments
put the project in
jeopardy.
The fiasco
began with the
joint venture partners accusing the
federal government of reneging on
a commitment to match the incentives
provided under the U.S. Inflation
Reduction Act.
The spat spilled into social media
with the feds saying Ontario needed to
step up and pay its fair share. The dispute
went on for months, construction
at the plant stopped and there was a
real threat of Stellantis moving some
of its functions to the United States.
which caused sleepless nights
for many APMA members -
and Project Arrow arrived, as
Volpe predicted, right on time
at CES. An incredible feat
considering the car was not
built by an automaker.
But that's not all. A keen
observer of the shifting geopolitical
landscape, Volpe, 47,
often spots potential threats
to the North American auto
industry long before government officials
tasked with preserving the sector.
In the fall, Volpe warned Canadian
and U.S. governments of the perils of
ation and trade has played
no small part in making it
happen.
Vic Fedeli, the longtime
Progressive Conservative
MPP for Nipissing, took
up the economic development
cabinet posting
in mid-2019 and in his
own words, has burned
through a lot of " shoe
leather " over the intervening
years. He has frequented the
overseas bases of automotive and battery
giants in Japan, Germany and
South Korea, helping put Ontario in
contention for big-ticket investments
in the electric vehicle supply chain.
Fedeli, 67, has also taken a collaborative
approach with the federal
Liberal government, tag-teamChina's
growing presence in Mexico's
auto sector. Not one to mince words,
Volpe accused U.S. and Canadian politicians
of " playing like scouts in an
open-market economy while our competition
strategically attacks our whole
market. "
Shortly after Volpe lobbied U.S. officials,
a bipartisan group of American
lawmakers penned a letter to U.S. Trade
Representative Katherine Tai urging
her to boost the current 25-per-cent
tariff on Chinese vehicles and investigate
ways to prevent Chinese companies
from exporting to the United States
from Mexico.
ing prospective investors
with François-Philippe
Champagne, Canada's minister
of innovation, science
and industry. The
result has been a dramatic
reversal of fortunes for the
Ontario auto sector, which
saw a series of major plant
closures in the years following
the 2008 financial
crisis.
The economic development blitz
culminated in April as Volkswagen
battery unit PowerCo committed
to build a battery cell plant in St.
Thomas, Ont. The $7 billion investment
is the largest-ever in Canada's
auto sector, and the sprawling site is
expected to be the biggest manufacturing
plant in the country.
dream job " early in his career,
becoming GM Canada's network
infrastructure lead. Walton, 40,
moved to the company's Kapuskasing
Proving Grounds, 800 kilometres
north of Toronto, in 2015, helping to
oversee the facility's transition to EV
cold-weather testing.
The change included negotiating
the first commercial partnership
with ChargePoint and deploying its
then-groundbreaking 400-kilowatt
direct-current fast charger in 2022,
along with chassis dynamometers
and climatic cold chambers. The aim
is to ensure EV range doesn't drop,
there are no problems charging and
the vehicle operates as reliably as its
internal-combustion counterparts.
" My focus outside of operating the
GM Kapuskasing Proving Grounds is
more of a strategic visionary to grow
testing and validation in Canada, "
Walton said.
To their
credit, federal
Finance Minister
Chrystia
Freeland, 55,
and Ontario
Premier Doug
Ford, 59, hashed
out a last-minute
cost-sharing
agreement that
secured the plant
and established a plan going forward
to prevent a repeat, a plan the Ontario
government calls the " auto pact. "
The two governments jointly
matched U.S. subsidies for battery
investments, leveling the playing field
for Canada at a time of fierce global
competition for EV supply chain
spending.
The relationship between Ford and
Freeland set a new standard for crossaisle
achievements.
Automotive News Canada - December 2023

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