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The project will begin with a design contest this summer inviting Canadian universities and colleges to submit ideas for the car. Suppliers will bid on the project in the fall and a “virtual concept” will be unveiled next year. A final, fully built vehicle will be introduced in 2022.

Though not intended for general consumers, the car will be in alignment with all Canadian road safety requirements. A typical concept car costs between $1.5 million and $2 million to build, Volpe said.

“A concept car that demonstrates to the world what the Canadian auto sector can do is money well spent,” he said.

Joe McCabe, president of auto industry consulting firm AutoForecast Solutions LLC, said with the future of mass auto production in Canada uncertain, the APMA project reflects a push by some in the industry to be more competitive in the “next frontier” of auto manufacturing: advanced technology, electrification and autonomous vehicles. General Motors of Canada closed its century-old Oshawa, Ont. facility in December, transforming the location into a maker of spare parts and a test track for driverless cars.

“Big automotive companies aren’t investing in Canada right now,” McCabe said. “There’s a downgrade constantly of the production landscape here. So we either bring a brand new player in that doesn’t have a footprint in North America yet or we go down the path of leveraging Canada’s strengths: a highly skilled and educated workforce, a lot of technology focus, and a centralized jurisdiction in the auto industry.”