Driving 4/12/2021
Frank Stronach made his name and his fortune in auto parts. Now, the 88-year-old founder of Magna International thinks he has another blockbuster idea in the transportation space.
© Provided by Driving.ca Frank Stronach, the man who brought a piece of the global auto industry to rural Ontario, wants to get back in the car business with a tiny electric vehicle he says will revolutionize the industry.
Pending a provincial land-zoning amendment, Stronach says he is hoping to break ground as soon as this month on the construction of a 60,000-square-foot facility north of Toronto, where he plans to research, produce and assemble his latest invention — a three-wheel electric single-seat vehicle slightly wider than a standard doorway.
The 88-year-old envisions the SARIT — an acronym for “Safe Affordable Reliable Innovative Transport” — as a revolutionary product.
Pending a provincial land-zoning amendment, Stronach says he is hoping to break ground as soon as this month on the construction of a 60,000-square-foot facility north of Toronto, where he plans to research, produce and assemble his latest invention — a three-wheel electric single-seat vehicle slightly wider than a standard doorway.
The 88-year-old envisions the SARIT — an acronym for “Safe Affordable Reliable Innovative Transport” — as a revolutionary product.
The three-foot-by-six-foot vehicle can reach a maximum speed of 32 kilometres per hour, travels 100 kilometres on a single charge, and features a trunk that fits a standard piece of luggage.
“This is my crowning piece, the SARIT,” Stronach said in an interview with the Financial Post this week. “Magna builds a lot of cars. But sometimes something small (like the SARIT) is more difficult to build than something big.”
The self-financed project — he declined to reveal the expected cost — will thrust him into the increasingly competitive global electric vehicle market, but Stronach believes the SARIT will fill a niche as drivers abandon standard or large vehicles for alternatives that are cleaner, cheaper and more compact.
“You have millions of people who drive every morning who are stuck in traffic to get from home to the workplace and back,” he said. “I saw the traffic jams and most cars had only a driver, no other passengers.”
Stronach’s move comes as global automakers are pouring into the electric vehicle space, and tiny, compact cars are gaining traction in markets overseas. In July, General Motors started selling a US$4,000 two-seat mini electric car in China with a maximum speed of 100 kilometres per hour.
Canadian companies are vying to break into the industry, too. British Columbia-based ElectraMeccanica is developing a three-wheel, single-seat EV that reaches a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour and looks like a mini-sedan.
© Postmedia The original Electrameccanica Solo, pictured for Driving’s first drive session back in 2017.
These new products can face several hurdles before they can hit the road, including persuading governments to amend road safety and traffic regulations to permit them on roadways and attracting a consumer base big enough to keep costs down and sway legislators, according to Tyler Hamilton, a cleantech expert at the Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District.
“You’d have to convince Transport Canada (the federal department that regulates transportation) to alter existing legislation to allow these things to be on streets of certain speed limits,” Hamilton said. “It’s a Titanic to move, and is the market large enough to move that Titanic?”
Stronach thinks it is.
These new products can face several hurdles before they can hit the road, including persuading governments to amend road safety and traffic regulations to permit them on roadways and attracting a consumer base big enough to keep costs down and sway legislators, according to Tyler Hamilton, a cleantech expert at the Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District.
“You’d have to convince Transport Canada (the federal department that regulates transportation) to alter existing legislation to allow these things to be on streets of certain speed limits,” Hamilton said. “It’s a Titanic to move, and is the market large enough to move that Titanic?”
Stronach thinks it is.
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He says the inspiration for the SARIT struck after Ontario Premier Doug Ford called him a few years ago to discuss GM’s plan to shutter its assembly plant in Oshawa and cut more than 2,500 jobs. (GM announced in November that it is reopening the plant this summer to address increasing demand for pickup trucks.)
“(The premier) said, ‘Frank, I’ve got a problem. General Motors is closing. I’d like to have your advice,’” Stronach said. “He was saying that’s a lot of workers, is there another source of creating jobs? … I told him there would be a need for one-seat electric cars. He was encouraging.”
The facility could create as many as 200 jobs in the region, and thousands if more factories across the country are eventually built, Stronach said. As a research facility, the plant would have the capacity to produce and assemble 30,000 electric vehicles each year, which he estimates will be built at a production cost of $2,500 per vehicle and will retail at $4,000
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He says the inspiration for the SARIT struck after Ontario Premier Doug Ford called him a few years ago to discuss GM’s plan to shutter its assembly plant in Oshawa and cut more than 2,500 jobs. (GM announced in November that it is reopening the plant this summer to address increasing demand for pickup trucks.)
“(The premier) said, ‘Frank, I’ve got a problem. General Motors is closing. I’d like to have your advice,’” Stronach said. “He was saying that’s a lot of workers, is there another source of creating jobs? … I told him there would be a need for one-seat electric cars. He was encouraging.”
The facility could create as many as 200 jobs in the region, and thousands if more factories across the country are eventually built, Stronach said. As a research facility, the plant would have the capacity to produce and assemble 30,000 electric vehicles each year, which he estimates will be built at a production cost of $2,500 per vehicle and will retail at $4,000
.
The proposed site is a five-minute drive east of Magna’s headquarters in Aurora, the town where Stronach grew the business from a garage studio into one of the world’s largest auto-parts companies.
While Stronach is best known for Magna, he’s no stranger to chasing bucket-list pursuits, including restaurants, thoroughbred racetracks, a magazine, electric bikes, and an energy drink named after him. Some of those ventures have succeeded, other haven’t.
The proposed site is a five-minute drive east of Magna’s headquarters in Aurora, the town where Stronach grew the business from a garage studio into one of the world’s largest auto-parts companies.
While Stronach is best known for Magna, he’s no stranger to chasing bucket-list pursuits, including restaurants, thoroughbred racetracks, a magazine, electric bikes, and an energy drink named after him. Some of those ventures have succeeded, other haven’t.
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