Latest news with #CanadianClub
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
Should Canada launch its own automaker? One industry voice says it's time to seriously consider it
Flavio Volpe outlines his vision for a Canadian-owned automaker during a Canadian Club Toronto panel on May 21, 2025. (Source: Canadian Club Toronto) (Picasa)
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Here's a plan to fix Canada's auto sector as its biggest customer tries to turn away
Canada's auto sector has been moving backward for the past decade, with overall vehicle production dropping 45 per cent to about 1.3 million vehicles last year from 2.4 million in 2014, but it's now facing perhaps its biggest challenge yet: its biggest customer, the United States, says it no longer wants Canadian-made vehicles. 'It's unprecedented,' Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, an industry lobby group, told an audience at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Wednesday about President Donald Trump saying his country does not want Canadian-made vehicles anymore. 'We don't have a negotiating table and I actually don't know what the next step is.' Volpe was joined by Rob Wildeboer, executive chairman of Martinrea International Inc., one of Canada's largest auto-parts companies, and others to discuss whether Canadian policymakers could help create a self-sufficient homegrown auto industry, how to support existing companies and what an ideal regulatory situation would look like. 'We're used to being punched in the face,' Wildeboer said, recounting how the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2008-09 financial crisis and the pandemic's supply chain challenges have hobbled the sector in the past. More recently, the Trump administration repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs and then followed through in early April with 25 per cent tariffs. Wildeboer said he travelled to Washington, D.C., twice, even making it inside the West Wing, to meet with Trump's top policy advisers, whom he warned that the North American auto production system is so integrated that any tariffs on Canadian or Mexican auto parts would quickly shut down production. He said the advisers took notes and eventually listened, as far as auto parts tariffs go, at least so far. Nonetheless, automakers have already warned the tariffs on finished vehicles will eat up billions of dollars in profits at a time when they face the costly task of reinventing themselves as the electric vehicle transition accelerates. 'That's the nature of how policy is going,' Wildeboer said. 'In my view, if you try to figure out one word for it, I would call it incoherent. That doesn't mean that we can't lurch towards something that's really good.' What 'really good' could look like at its simplest, he said, is completely free trade on auto parts in North America, and more rules around using only North American parts in vehicles, with higher penalties for non-compliance. Wildeboer also said there need to be new rules that penalize automakers from Europe, Japan, Korea and elsewhere that sell a lot of cars in North America, but don't manufacture here. However, he said Chinese automakers and parts companies need to be kept out of the market. 'They cheat,' he said, saying their companies receive too many government subsidies for Western companies to compete. Volpe made similar points about renegotiating a free trade agreement that brings more auto production back to North America, but he also characterized the industry's problem as a failure of imagination. In 2023, he spearheaded Project Arrow, which made a prototype vehicle entirely from Canadian parts. It was not made as a potential product for sale, but more as a publicity stunt to show people the depth and breadth of the industry and spur entrepreneurs to imagine what is possible, he said. Volpe said the federal and provincial governments, mainly in Ontario and Quebec, have spent the past several years wooing foreign automakers to build out an electric-vehicle supply chain in Canada by offering tax credits and other financial incentives that could add up to tens of billions of dollars. Honda reveals delay of $15-billion Canada investment part of shift in EV strategy EV sales in Canada dropped sharply in March, even as broader market grows The country should at least study whether it could create a national automaker, he said, noting that Vietnam has its own EV company and that the nature of the EV transition may even create a market opportunity for such a company. 'Let's have a national ambition in industrial policy and in the posture with which we lean into the wind,' Volpe said. • Email: gfriedman@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Industry executive says time to explore potential of Canadian-based automaker
Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, used a Canadian Club event in Toronto to call for an exploration into the potential of a new Canadian-born automaker. (May 22, 2025)
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Calgary Herald
Here's a plan to fix Canada's auto sector as its biggest customer tries to turn away
Canada's auto sector has been moving backward for the past decade, with overall vehicle production dropping 45 per cent to about 1.3 million vehicles last year from 2.4 million in 2014, but it's now facing perhaps its biggest challenge yet: its biggest customer, the United States, says it no longer wants Canadian-made vehicles. Article content 'It's unprecedented,' Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, an industry lobby group, told an audience at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Wednesday about President Donald Trump saying his country does not want Canadian-made vehicles anymore. 'We don't have a negotiating table and I actually don't know what the next step is.' Article content Article content Volpe was joined by Rob Wildeboer, executive chairman of Martinrea International Inc., one of Canada's largest auto-parts companies, and others to discuss whether Canadian policymakers could help create a self-sufficient homegrown auto industry, how to support existing companies and what an ideal regulatory situation would look like. Article content Article content 'We're used to being punched in the face,' Wildeboer said, recounting how the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2008-09 financial crisis and the pandemic's supply chain challenges have hobbled the sector in the past. Article content More recently, the Trump administration repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs and then followed through in early April with 25 per cent tariffs. Article content Wildeboer said he travelled to Washington, D.C., twice, even making it inside the West Wing, to meet with Trump's top policy advisers, whom he warned that the North American auto production system is so integrated that any tariffs on Canadian or Mexican auto parts would quickly shut down production. Article content Article content Article content He said the advisers took notes and eventually listened, as far as auto parts tariffs go, at least so far. Nonetheless, automakers have already warned the tariffs on finished vehicles will eat up billions of dollars in profits at a time when they face the costly task of reinventing themselves as the electric vehicle transition accelerates. Article content Article content 'That's the nature of how policy is going,' Wildeboer said. 'In my view, if you try to figure out one word for it, I would call it incoherent. That doesn't mean that we can't lurch towards something that's really good.' Article content What 'really good' could look like at its simplest, he said, is completely free trade on auto parts in North America, and more rules around using only North American parts in vehicles, with higher penalties for non-compliance. Article content Wildeboer also said there need to be new rules that penalize automakers from Europe, Japan, Korea and elsewhere that sell a lot of cars in North America, but don't manufacture here.
Winnipeg Free Press
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canadian automotive executives call for greater ambition amid Trump threats
TORONTO – Canadian auto industry leaders say the country has to use the Trump-induced industrial crisis to build bigger at home. Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, used a Canadian Club event in Toronto to call for an exploration into the potential of a new Canadian-born automaker. Volpe says Canada has all the ingredients needed to build a domestic champion that could help boost the industry and show what the country is capable of, just as countries like Vietnam, Turkey and Mexico are already doing. He says there are certainly challenges, but given the shake-up going on from Trump's tariffs, it's important to be ambitious in exploring alternatives. Martinrea International executive chairman Robert Wildeboer said at the event that the rupture in the trade relationship with the U.S. is a wake-up call, and a tremendous opportunity. He says that Canada's domestic industry is challenged in part because critical skills like die making are in short supply, but that by working with North American partners, the industry could be producing millions more vehicles to supply local markets. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2025. Companies in this story: (TSX:MRE)
