Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Eric Little.
I am the CEO of Edison Motors. We are building electric hybrid semi-trucks in Golden, British Columbia. That's a rural town. We employ 32. We're a small business, but we are growing very quickly.
We have become one of Canada's fastest-growing clean technology companies. It basically started four years ago in a backyard in Merritt. Now we have a valuation of $300 million Canadian. We're growing and trying very hard to commercialize our technology.
The semi-trucks we build are electric. They are powered exclusively from a battery. This battery powers a suite of train motors, meaning that, quite frankly, this technology was going to happen eventually. We're just very lucky to be able to build it right here in Canada.
What's really important to note is that it is a hybrid. These semi-trucks that we build are powered from a battery, but it is charged throughout its working day by a diesel generator. It basically uses all the benefits of an electric vehicle. You have regenerative braking. By the way, in a traditional semi-truck, you need to burn more fuel to slow down the vehicle because they're just so heavy, so regenerative braking is going to be awesome for this.
Furthermore, the efficiency of the drivetrain itself means that, cumulatively, these vehicles have a 30% fuel reduction. That's a minimum. There will be applications like logging—we're former loggers— where it could be upwards of 90% because you go uphill unloaded and then you come downhill loaded. You can use gravity to produce more energy to charges your batteries. It's really cool stuff.
Fundamentally, the reason I'm here today is while we have all the benefits of building an EV right in Canada, unfortunately, there's a bit of a roadblock in terms of the environmental regulation itself. Under CEPA, there is a very specific regulation called the hybrid alternative engine standard. This does not allow Edison to use a diesel generator engine on an on-road vehicle. Because of this, we've actually been forced as a business to switch totally from hybrids to building traditional trucks, which is not the goal of this committee nor our business because we have thousands of fans and investors that have supported us throughout this journey to build hybrids right here in Canada.
I did provide a brief to the committee. What this really provides is a recommendation pathway to try to address our issue. It's a very simple amendment with two core parts.
The first thing I'd like to say is that we've worked very closely with the department, ECCC. They've been incredibly supportive. They actually helped me write, at least in part.... They provided their support in writing the amendments that I provided the committee.
First and foremost, it's to include EPA-certified diesel generator engines for our trucks. This is really critical because it allows us to not need to recertify an engine that's already certified in Canada. We at Edison really don't understand why we need to recertify a diesel engine that is used to produce electricity already for on-road use. I mean, it's not allowing our commercialization pathway at all. Quite frankly, it's a risk to our business.
Second, what I found very curious about the regulation is that it sunsets in 2027. Technically, as it is written, we cannot build hybrid trucks anyway after 2027. The department has also recommended that we extend this to 2032, which is in line with the U.S. regulations.
Fundamentally, our problem is that we are so tied to U.S. regulations that we, as a Canadian truck manufacturer, cannot build the technology we desire. More importantly, we can't even get an exemption because those exemptions are completely dependent on U.S. regulators and the industry, which means that we can't compete.
I really appreciate your time on this matter and I'm hoping that I can answer as many questions as possible. Thank you very much.