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Who?
AK Motor: A Toronto-based start-up that not many would have heard of unless they have been closely looking at themes and news of electric vehicles, particularly that of Canada. Now why would such a small unheard-of company be the one to write such a serious letter to the Prime Minister? Because he believed the call for change was urgent. He did not want to wait on some other bigger name to do it; he just wanted to get the message out plain and simple: support domestic automotive companies to put an end to 100% reliance on foreign ones.
The Biggest Problem
“The biggest problem for Canada’s automotive industry is not that we are facing a new wave of American
protectionism, but rather that Canada has never attempted to insulate itself from such crises. For the best part
of the last century, Canada has relied on foreign OEM’s to set up factories, and produce their cars in Canada. This
reliance on foreign OEM’s is to the tune of 100%, and can only be described as “putting all our eggs in one basket”.
This status quo means that every time decisions are made about production of cars in Canada, they are made
outside our borders, and entirely beyond our control so that Canada’s auto industry is effectively at the mercy of
foreign powers” – Second Paragraph Quote
Perfectly true. The Ford Motor Company and General Motors are headquartered in the United States, Stellantis in the Netherlands, while Honda and Toyota are headquartered in Japan. This is why Canadians can plea and try to convince a foreign company to stay put whenever the mother country decides to shutter a factory, or axe a popular model, but ultimately cannot do anything about it. They may attempt to boycott said company, but this has always been more talk than actual walk. American protectionism is the next major thing that should have sent a major warning signal to Canada. Former President Donald Trump, and current president Joseph Biden may be different in a lot of ways, but if there is one critical similarity they have is the America first mindset. A country wanting to make more things in its home land and give its citizens greater incentives to buy those products is normally not supposed to be an area of concern. For the case of Mexico and Canada, it ends up being a great concern when part of the Buy Back Better Act, when created, will give consumers up $12,500 in tax credits for American-made vehicles.
This will naturally demotivate the far larger United States customer base from purchasing General Motors or Ford vehicles built outside of the United States. Thus leading to reduced shifts to ultimately closing off plants in Canada. What are the odds that Toyota and Honda might eventually consider doing the same? They might not close down their plants at this time, nor for the same reasons per se, but because they are headquartered in Japan, they could freely do so, completely against Canada’s will. Canada could try and invite other nations to set up shop, but as proven time after time, it leads to cycles of great success, then cycles of closed plants and job losses.
Nothing Wrong With Foreign Presence
“There is no suggestion here that Canada should turn away from the international OEMs who produce their vehicles
in Canada, but rather that we hedge our bets by including a Canadian complement of OEMs to the overall
manufacturing footprint. There is no question that Canada needs foreign OEM’s operating on our soil because
they give our parts suppliers a reason to exist, and Canada’s EV OEM’s will need those suppliers too.” – Fifth Paragraph Quote
Kaminski makes it clear that having foreign automotive brands in Canada is not a problem. He even both compliments and admits that it gives Canadian parts suppliers a reason to exist. After all, despite the ups and downs with foreign companies in the past, they provide thousands of high quality jobs for Canadians. He also points out that the current parts suppliers should also be used for the benefit of making wholly-Canadian vehicles. The last sentence of the fifth paragraph also mentions that a ratio of 75% foreign OEM’s to 25% Canadian OEM’s would be sufficient to bring lasting stability to Canada’s auto industry. This is a realistic humble goal for Canada to start with. However, in the long term, it is advised that Canada works towards achieving 50% Canadian OEM, or even greater. When precisely? It is far too early to say. The present wholly-Canadian automotive industry is still in the conception phase, and not even born yet. This will be greatly dependent on how many successful companies emerge within the 2020’s.
Debunking The Lack Of A Market Myth
When the topic of making wholly-Canadian cars is brought up, one of the most common comebacks is that Canada does not have the market for it. In other words, the population is too small and that the country does not have enough money to start its own auto industry. Both of these are miserably false. Not only is Canada is trillion dollar country, but it is also a country with a very high purchasing power. Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and others know this. They know that there is huge market for some of their automotive models, hence why they go as far as setting up factories and other businesses in a country outside of their native lands. They are aware of the major parts suppliers that are headquartered there. In fact, the parts alone is one of the major driving reasons why APMA’s Flavio Volpe has been motivated to making a wholly-Canadian vehicle.
Volpe realized that Canada already makes so many different car parts, that Canada might as well attempt to make a full car from those parts. This is precisely what APMA is doing, and even announced plans to showcase their vehicle to investors at autoshows in 2023. The renderings are available. Though AK Motor is much smaller and lesser known than APMA, the CEO still believes that he can convince high-ranking leaders to support home-grown brands.
Debunking The Steep Competition Myth
This is not entirely a myth. It is true that existing competitors need to be taken into consideration. It is true that new competitors absolutely need to know what they are doing in order to convince consumers to buy their products. However, to say that the existing competition will not allow Canada to ever succeed is ludicrous. All companies had to start somewhere. Some may have started at times when there was less competition, or with greater funding, but they all had to get out and compete. As long as a good attempt is made with much pride and hard work, there is a chance of success. If no attempt is made, the chance of success is guaranteed zero.
Trudeau’s Response?
At this time, there does not appear to be a response from Trudeau. At least not publicly. There is a chance that he may have chosen to respond to Kaminski privately through a letter, or some other medium. If Trudeau does decide to respond more publicly, it is safe to assume that not only will AK Motor update the media releases reflecting this, but to also expect headlines from various new outlets.
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