Evidence of meeting #26 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vehicle.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Managing Director and Executive Vice-President, Business Development, Fleet Advantage Inc.
Go ahead, Larry, by all means. I didn't get a hug, though.
Thank you.
Larry A. Robertson Manager, Vehicle Environmental and Energy Programs, Engineering and Regulatory Affairs, Chrysler Canada Inc.
As Dr. Frise mentioned, the challenge to industry will be enormous. The fuel efficiency improvements over the last couple of decades have been in the order of 1% and 2% per year. A lot of safety technology has been rolled in there. Vehicles today are computers on wheels, and more is coming.
Manager, Vehicle Environmental and Energy Programs, Engineering and Regulatory Affairs, Chrysler Canada Inc.
We have the challenge of this almost 50% to 100% improvement in the next 10 to 15 years. We don't know collectively where that's going to go on any particular technology. There will be a whole range of technologies.
Chrysler has been in the market in Canada with propane vehicles, natural gas vehicles, flexible fuel vehicles, ethanol and methanol, hybrid vehicles, and we're looking at electric. In fact, on Tuesday we announced the reintroduction of a natural gas pickup truck for the market. We believe in moving fuel infrastructure away from current fossil fuel use and looking at the use of renewables. Electrification has got to be part of that in the future, but it's going to be a whole mix.
Chrysler's portfolio is a full-line manufacturer from small cars to pickups—
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
I'll cut you off there, if I may.
Mr. Frise, you're the R and D guy. You have some government money. You have some researchers and all that.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
Yes, sir.
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
How do you work with the private sector, for example? Are you just providing some research? I noticed that you have something like 200 researchers and 38 projects right now. How do you work? It's just R and D and then you work with the private sector, too, or are you just an academic?
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
It's actually a very effective model. When we put out a call for proposals, essentially the researchers will go to the industry to find out what the key problems are. Then the industry and the researchers will do a due diligence to ensure that there really is the capability there—that the researchers have the capability that the industry needs—and then they make a proposal to us.
On the front of the proposal, essentially the top part of the sheet is what they are asking AUTO21 for, the public sector part of the funding.
The bottom part of the sheet is what I refer to as the “who cares” part. I need to see that Mr. Robertson's company is interested in this project and how interested they are. If it's $50,000 year, that's pretty interested. Then the details of the project follow. What are we actually trying to achieve? What methodology are we going to use to do it? What is the commercialization plan? That part of it usually comes from the industry people, because I've checked very carefully, Mr. Coderre, and there isn't a single university in Canada that has an automotive assembly plant. We don't build cars—
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
You'd be surprised that in the polytechnics there are some electric cars, though, so you should rephrase that.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
We have four or five of those too.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
The point is that the role of the universities is to create knowledge and educate people. The role of business is to commercialize knowledge and create money, jobs, and wealth for Canadians out of it, and for their shareholders.
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
Exactly.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Auto21 Inc.
Exactly.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Robertson, Chrysler has, I understand, recently put forward a proposal for natural gas-powered truck. Is that correct?
Manager, Vehicle Environmental and Energy Programs, Engineering and Regulatory Affairs, Chrysler Canada Inc.
It's not a proposal; it's an announcement of production.
Manager, Vehicle Environmental and Energy Programs, Engineering and Regulatory Affairs, Chrysler Canada Inc.
The first factory-produced natural gas vehicle, or the most recent factory-produced natural gas vehicle, is expected to be available in July.
We at Chrysler had been in the market for about eight years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the market dried up from a lack of incentives to keep programs going and lack of fuelling infrastructure.
There seems to be a renewed North American interest in that particular energy source. Chrysler found an opportunity to work on our previous experience and also with our alliance through Fiat to bring the natural gas technology of Fiat back to North America.
Conservative
Manager, Vehicle Environmental and Energy Programs, Engineering and Regulatory Affairs, Chrysler Canada Inc.
They will be built in Saltillo, Mexico.
