Public understanding of the automotive sector is often associated with images of skilled employees on vehicle assembly lines, but the industry is also home to a diverse and growing high-tech ecosystem that needs to be properly understood and assessed. 

Automotive manufacturing employers in both vehicle assembly and parts production are increasingly adopting advanced manufacturing technologies. However, Canada is also home to a flourishing number of automotive technology organizations that feed into and support the broader manufacturing sector. 

These automotive technology organizations are generally clustered on a regional basis. They contribute vital research and development capabilities, and they employ a significant number of Canadians. As well, these employers and organizations support the growth of new Canadian start-ups with growing expertise in numerous automotive technologies including autonomous, connected and alternative propulsion vehicle technologies. 

Today, the FOCAL project released a series of reports on Canada’s automotive technology clusters.  The reports are available here.

We identify regional automotive technology clusters in Vancouver, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, Windsor, Ottawa, and Montréal.

Each of these regions is home to an ecosystem of automotive technology firms, suppliers, and research/associational organizations. They also host specialized and highly skilled pools of labour.Our research shows that employment in Canada’s ‘auto-tech’ clusters is a major addition to the already very substantial base of employment in automotive manufacturing in Canada. Moreover, our research examines the occupational distribution in each of these regional clusters to better understand the projected demand in skills for the automotive vehicle and manufacturing technologies.