The trail that led Toronto’s Polar Sapphire Ltd. from supplies expertise to the auto sector was hardly a straight one.

The corporate, based a decade in the past to provide materials utilized in artificial sapphire, began down its oblique path to automotive when electrical autos have been a rarity and much off the agency’s radar. However at this time, because it scales up its new high-purity alumina manufacturing plant in Oakville, Ont., Polar Sapphire is counting EV battery suppliers amongst its chief potential prospects.

Among the many early-stage corporations in Canada’s various tech cluster alongside the Toronto-Waterloo hall, Polar Sapphire is much from alone in branching into automotive. The burgeoning section “has opened up an enormous marketplace for us that we hadn’t initially deliberate on,” mentioned firm COO Dan Smith.

Auto’s gravitational pull comes from the large new alternatives within the sector, as established corporations grapple with the revolutions in electrical and autonomous autos (AV).

“Most of the startups we introduce to our automotive companions aren’t centered on the sector per se and in some instances by no means even thought of the sector,” mentioned Tyler Hamilton, director of unpolluted tech on the Toronto startup incubator and innovation hub MaRS Discovery District. “However the alternatives are there.”

UNTAPPED TECH

As the way forward for automotive takes form, Hamilton and different consultants say expertise corporations all through the 110-kilometre hall —  companies centered on the whole lot from synthetic intelligence (AI) to superior supplies — are poised to play a significant function within the {industry}’s evolution.

“If you happen to break down all the weather of an electrical automobile — physique, powertrain, leisure system, superior navigation, seating, lighting, battery system, wheels, communications, cybersecurity — you begin to notice how a lot you have to look past conventional auto tech companies to search out technical options,” Hamilton mentioned.

MaRS makes use of its partnerships with authorities and {industry} to hyperlink upstart corporations with the connections they might want to commercialize, Hamilton mentioned.

Like different tech incubators alongside the Toronto-Waterloo hall, corresponding to Communitech within the Waterloo Area, MaRS will not be centered solely on automotive. However the district sees a rising function for Ontario tech corporations because the emphasis on electrical and autonomous expertise grows.

The startup accelerator was among the many early traders in Polar Sapphire. The corporate “wouldn’t have even gotten off the bottom” with out MaRS, Smith mentioned.

As we speak, Polar Sapphire has shifted from startup to scale up. After taking possession of its Oakville plant final yr, the corporate plans to ramp up manufacturing of alumina and double its worker headcount to 60 within the close to time period.

Smith estimates that round one-third of the plant’s output may very well be destined for the lithium-ion battery {industry}, wherein alumina is used as a separator to maintain a battery cell’s optimistic and unfavorable electrodes aside.

‘OVERLAPPING CLUSTERS’

From course of innovators corresponding to Polar Sapphire to extra conventional software-focused corporations, the free conglomeration of tech expertise alongside the Toronto-Waterloo hall totals practically 300,000 employees and 15,000 corporations, of which 5,000 are startups, in response to the Waterloo Area Financial Improvement Corp.

Not all of those corporations are energetic in automotive. However Ross McKenzie, managing director of the College of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Analysis (WatCAR), mentioned the province’s automotive heartland — stretching from Oshawa on the east finish of the Higher Toronto Space to Windsor, Ont. — creates a prepared marketplace for expertise corporations.

“It augurs nicely for the [tech] hall to assist the automotive sector as a result of … we’re the one jurisdiction in North America the place you have got the overlapping clusters,” he mentioned.

In the USA, McKenzie famous, the auto {industry} is centred in Michigan, whereas a lot of the tech sector is in California’s Silicon Valley.

“Right here in Canada,” he mentioned, “one sits on high of the opposite.”

The simultaneous advance of AVs and EVs has opened the door for software program corporations able to making sense of the information that next-generation autos depend on, in addition to companies in a position to assist suppliers develop new, typically untested electrical elements.

OUTSIDE EXPERTISE

One such instance is Vaughan, Ont.-based Kepstrum Inc. Its methodology and accompanying software program assist auto elements suppliers develop, prototype and qualify new automobile elements sooner and with much less danger of recall, mentioned Siavash Kianpour, who heads enterprise improvement on the firm.

“The totally different elements are coming to market at a very unprecedented tempo,” Kianpour mentioned. “A extremely fast shift with very restricted information, that’s the place our experience comes into play.”

Kepstrum’s course of depends on modelling versus historic information — a transparent aggressive edge when most EV elements haven’t been put by their paces in real-world situations, Kianpour mentioned.

The corporate just lately partnered with elements provider Stackpole Worldwide Inc. and London, Ont.’s Armo-Instrument Ltd. on an end-of-line tester primarily based on Kepstrum’s analytical algorithms to enhance high quality management processes in vegetation. The collaboration is funded partially by Subsequent Era Manufacturing Canada (NGen), the industry-led group behind the federal authorities’s manufacturing supercluster program.

MAGNA, CUM LAUDE

Collaboration between {industry} and academia can also be shaping the way forward for the {industry}.

Elements provider Magna Worldwide Inc., primarily based simply north of Toronto in Aurora, Ont., just lately wrapped up a five-year analysis mission with the College of Waterloo. The work centered on utilizing AI to study driver behaviours to assist form how the corporate integrates superior driver-assistance techniques (ADAS) into its upcoming merchandise.

Partnering with the college frequently challenges Magna’s inside assumptions, mentioned Jim Quesenberry, the provider’s director of analysis and improvement.

“We use these interactions and actually immediate the considering of scholars and school who don’t have an automotive heritage or any of our previous hang-ups,” Quesenberry mentioned, “and so they inject new methods of considering into this. It will possibly set us off in a brand new path that we hadn’t thought of but.”

For the College of Waterloo, the partnerships create a singular alternative for college kids and school to have interaction with {industry} on real-world issues, McKenzie mentioned. Inevitably, he mentioned, most of the college students feed again into the tech and auto ecosystem after commencement.