Cannabis electric car to be made in Canada

An electric car madeof hemp is being developed by agroup ofCanadian companies in collaboration with an Alberta Crown corporation.

The Kestrel will be prototyped and tested later in AugustbyCalgary-based Motive Industries Inc.,a vehicle development firm focused on advanced materials and technologies, the company announced.

The compact car, whichwill holda driver and up to three passengers,will have a top speed of 90 kilometres per hour and a range of 40 to 160 kilometres before needing to be recharged, depending on the type of battery, the company said in an email to CBC News Monday.

It will be powered by a motor made by Boucherville, Que.-based TM4 Electrodynamic Systems, said Motive Industries president Nathan Armstrong.

'As a structural material, hemp is about the best.' Nathan Armstrong, Motive Industries Inc.

The car's body will be made of an impact-resistant composite materialproduced from mats of hemp, a plant from the cannabis family. Thematerial is being supplied byAlberta Innovates-Technology Futures, a provincial Crown corporation that provides technical services and funding to help commercialize new technologies. The hempis beinggrown in Vegreville, Alta.

The Kestrel is one of fiveelectric vehicles being developed byProject Eve, an automotive industrycollaboration founded by Motive and Toronto Electric, an Ontario material handling and electric motor company,to boost the production of electric vehicles and electric vehicle components in Canada.

Colleges to help build cars

The Kestrelcarswill be built with the help of polytechnic schools in Alberta, Quebec and Toronto, and the first20carsare scheduled tobe delivered next year to EnMax, a Calgary-based energy distribution, supply and service company that is taking part in Project Eve.

Hemp

Hemp is the common name for the cannabis plant, which has fibrous roots, stalks and stems useful for producing a variety of products and seeds that are edible.

The flowers, buds and leaves of some strains are used to produce drugs such as marijuana and hashish because they contain a psychoactive compound called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but industrial hemp is bred to produce very little THC.

Automotivepioneer Henry Ford first built a car made of hemp fibre and resin more than half a century ago.

"It's not an original idea," Armstrong said, but one that wasn't developed much further as car manufacturers favoured other materials, such as steel, in subsequent decades.

However,fibreglass and carbon fibre-based compositeshavegained popularityas materials for the body of racecars because they are strong, but light. Such composite materials consist of pieces or fibres of a hard reinforcement material, such asglass or carbon fibre,surrounded and supported by a matrix of amaterial such as plastic.

Producing composites from glass or carbon fibre requires intense heating in furnaces and multiple chemical processes, Armstrong said, making it very energy intensive.

In contrast, plant-based fibres growin a field using the energy of the sun.

"As a structural material, hemp is about the best," Armstrong said, as it hasabouttwice the strength of otherplant fibres. Itdoesn't require much water or pesticide use, and grows well in Canada, providing a high yield per hectare.

Market advantage

"Plus, it's illegal to grow it in the U.S., so it actually gives Canada a bit of a market advantage," Armstrong added. The U.S. does allow the import of processed hemp.

ATlF had been working for some time on hemp-based composite materialswith the hardness of glass and had been seeking a commercial use.

Motive Industries had joined forces with Toronto Electric, a material-handling and electric motor company, to found Project Eve and decided to give the material a try.

The car will take batteries with a capacity ranging from 4.5 to 17.3 kilowatt hours of energy.

The vehicle's full design will be released after the September EV 2010 V Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver.