Looking for a respite from the smog in California, Nathan Armstrong, 34, moved his family to Calgary two years ago after his children developed asthma. But the automotive engineer isn’t content to just enjoy the clean air up here — he’s working to keep it that way.
The president of Calgary’s Motive Industries, along with his partner, designer Darren McKeage, is a serious contender in the Progressive Automotive X Prize contest — a competition to inspire the development of a 100-miles-per-gallon (2.4-litres-per-100-kilometres) car suitable for regular drivers.
Armstrong’s Motive Switch, a battery exchange hybrid electric vehicle whose battery will have a range of up to 220 kilometres per charge, has been named by Popular Mechanics as one of the top 10 early contenders for the $10 million US prize.
Earlier this year, Armstrong’s outlook for the Motive Switch wasn’t so rosy — he needed a sponsor to fund the $1.2-million project.
“We’re not holding our breath,” he said in August.
However, just a few weeks later, Calgary’s Intergrated Ethanol Corp. pledged its support. With the funds now in place, Armstrong will add another 10 skilled employees to his team of eight as the company works toward next September’s competition.
In answer to critics who say electric cars just move emissions from “the tailpipe to the coal plant,” Armstrong says even if the Switch’s battery is recharged solely through electricity provided by coal-fired plants, drivers would be reducing their overall carbon emissions by 30 per cent.
Armstrong hopes that eventually there will be recharge infrastructure in place so drivers will be able to pull into a station where they can recharge or exchange their dead battery for a freshly charged replacement. And already there are companies looking at developing such systems, including a B.C.-based organization Armstrong is in talks with to promote electric vehicles in Western Canada.
Eco-friendly cars aren’t Armstrong’s only focus. Other projects include designing a new Packard, a solar-powered pontoon boat and an RV that transforms into a houseboat.
The engineer hopes his company will spark a new manufacturing industry in Calgary.
What sets Armstrong’s plan apart from giant carmakers is that his company would
be a niche market manufacturer.
“We would have a limited-edition run and there would be more than enough people to buy what we make in Western Canada,” he says.
“Just to think that in 10 years people who are working for us now could have their own places and doing something similar, there could be a whole new industry out here.”
And that’s good news for Calgarians who want to work in the niche auto world but don’t want to leave Alberta.
“It’s great that I met Nathan,” says McKeage, “otherwise my wife and I would have had to move to California or Europe just to get into this industry.”
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Nathan Armstrong & Motive Industries — X Prize Fighters
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