Canada’s Taiga Motors Corp., a manufacturer of electric off-road vehicles, raised a combined $50 million in support of the Shawinigan Mass-Production Assembly Facility.
With the development of the new facility, Taiga predicts it will accelerate production of its off-road vehicle platforms and powertrains, while simultaneously optimizing and automating the battery production. Given the company’s approach of clean-sheet engineering of power units and vehicle platforms, the new manufacturing capability will have direct impact on off-road vehicle transportation and the environment.
“This factory will allow Taiga to become the first Canadian EV manufacturer to integrate both automated powertrain assemblies and electric vehicle platforms under one roof, for greatly increased efficiency,” said Samuel Brueau, CEO and co-founder of Taiga. “Thanks to the financing provided by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, we will be able to rapidly increase manufacturing capacity while continuing to drive innovation so that Quebec and Canada can remain leaders disrupting the global powersports market towards a more positive future of outdoor exploration without compromise.”
An industry first for electric powersports, the facility will employ a vertically integrated and modular approach, leveraging proprietary software and hardware technology platform commonalities across vehicle builds. The goal is increased economies of scale and reduced development times for new vehicles.
Advancements in automated manufacturing have allowed Taiga to innovate in electric powertrain production processes that will drive down costs to accelerate electrification in the off-road sector. The high-volume powersport production facility is expected to become operational in the second half of 2022, with manufacture of Taiga personal watercrafts and snowmobiles, alongside built-in flexibility for new off-road vehicles as they are brought to market. In parallel with vehicle production, the Shawinigan facility is capable of an annual production of three gigawatt hours in battery modules and packs.
The project is expected to create 370 high quality jobs and to develop a local supply chain of materials and components.