There are few Canadian automotive brands because the country’s automotive industry is underdeveloped. It is not a key part of the economy or a major contributor to government revenue. Instead, Japanese and American companies produce their transportation equipment in Canada. However, the Canadian auto industry is dominated by a small group of companies. It is mainly focused on “green” technologies.
What are Canadian automobile brands?
It is an essential part of the Canadian economy, as the automotive industry is one of the country’s largest industrial sectors. But Canada is mostly home to assembly lines of foreign companies, primarily Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, and Fiat-Chrysler. There aren’t many brands there. They supply products either to the domestic market or to foreign manufacturers.
Prevost
The company was founded in 1924 in St. Clair, Quebec. It is part of Volvo Buses Corporation and produces business-class vehicles. In particular, the company produces three-axle buses in two categories: tourist and commercial. Its best product is the Prevost X3 (New York City Transit intercity bus). The list also includes the H3-45 bus used for tourist trips (Tai Pan Tours).
The company, created by carpenter Eugene Prevost, was called Les Ateliers Prévost. After receiving an order for a bus chassis, the private manufacturer retrained and began producing metal chassis instead of wooden ones. In 1995, Volvo Bus Corporation bought the company. As of 2007, the company employs about 1,400 people and has six offices across North America. The Canadian manufacturer also has a group of premium business-class vehicles and RVs.
Intermeccanica
Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica is an automobile company founded in 1959. Its origin is the city of Turin (Italy). The company’s founder was Henry Reisner, who later transferred the business to his son, Frank Reisner. The Italian business first moved to the United States and then to Canada, with headquarters in New Westminster. It has not left the country since, focusing on the production of tuning kits.
Gradually, the company moved into automobile production. Its first model was a sports car, Formula Junior, with a Peugeot engine. Then, there was a line of copies of famous models. These are the Porsche 356 Speedster (1976) and the Checker Taxi (1979). Porsche 3560 and Volkswagen Kubelwagen copies are now in the company’s range. There are also variants of the 1958 Speedster, including the turbocharged Roadster and Speedster.
Campagna Corporation
This Canadian automobile company, based in Boucherville, Quebec, was founded in 1988. It was founded by Daniel Campagna, a Quebec-based Formula 1 Ford racer and inventor of the T-Rex prototype sports car. Campagna personally designed the cars and gathered a team of specialists around him.
In 2019, the company announced its closure due to a lack of funding, but a month later, it resumed operations and equipment sales. The reason is that the company found new investors, a manager, and a production place (a Boucherville factory). There, it currently produces two-seat tricycles.
Canadian Electric Vehicles
A company with the acronym CEV was founded in 1996 in Errington, British Columbia. At first, it focused on converting internal combustion engines into battery-powered electric engines. In the early years, the company also designed and developed automobile parts. Later, a large-tonnage truck, Might-E Truck, appeared in its lineup. It is a specialized heavy-duty truck widely used by management at many private companies, municipalities, parks, universities, etc.
Felino Corporation
This Canadian manufacturer of supercars and racing cars appeared in 2009. It was founded by Antoine Bessette, a former racing driver from Montreal (Quebec). The automaker’s debut model was the Felino CB7 sports car. It was developed over several years (2010 – 2014) and tested at the Gilles Villeneuve Formula 1 circuit. Prototypes of the novelty were first presented at the Montreal International Motor Show. Serial production of the signature design began in 2016. The designer of the original car is the company’s head himself.
Acadian
The Acadian car brand was introduced in 1962 by GM Canada and existed until 1971. Its logo featured a large red letter “A” on a white-and-blue rectangular background. At the bottom were three maple leaves, symbols of Canada.
ASNA
ASNA stands for Auto Shows of North America, a committee formed in 2003 to promote automotive marketing. The ASNA logo contains both versions of the name: full and abbreviated. At the top is a blue abbreviation, with a gray phrase below it, separated on both sides by horizontal lines.
Beaumont
Beaumont was another General Motors brand that existed in the 1960s. Its logo featured two maple leaves in a polygon and an arrow pointing downward.
Bricklin
This brand produced the SV-1 semi-sport model in the 1970s. The Bricklin logo looked like a white circle with a metal frame. Inside was a stylized letter “B” on a black rectangle with red lettering.
Brooks
From 1923 to 1936, Brooks Steam Motors, Ltd. was a Canadian steam engine manufacturer. Its logo featured the dark blue word “BROOKS” in capital letters, with the middle letters smaller than those on the edges.
Can-Am
Bombardier Recreational Products owns the Can-Am brand, which specializes in sport utility vehicles. Designers developed a logo consisting of a black circle with the white abbreviation “BRP” and a half-ring stylized as a cogwheel. The brand name is written in italicized lowercase black letters at the bottom.
Conquest Vehicle Incorporated
Conquest Vehicle Incorporated is a Toronto-based company known for its armored vehicles. Its logo resembles a copyright mark, containing the letter “C” in a circle. The letter, border, decorative stripes, and the word “CONQUEST” are silver, while the circle is black.
HHT Technologies
HHT Locus Technologies is a Quebec-based company that manufactures supercars. Its emblem is identified by the red inscription “HTT,” complemented by the white word “AUTOMOBILE,” and located in the lower part of the gray oval. On top is a circle design and an elongated figure of indeterminate shape.
Knight XV
Knight XV is Conquest Vehicles’ flagship brand. It produces a luxury SUV armored and powered by biofuel. The SUV’s logo is a white shield with a black outline, the letter “K,” and the inscription “KNIGHT XV.”
Magna
The Canadian company Magna International does not produce cars itself; it produces parts for assembly and supplies auto parts from famous brands. Its logo features the word “MAGNA” in bold gray letters and the stylized abbreviation “MI.” It consists of a black triangle, two diagonal polygons of the same color, and a red circle.
Manic GT
This brand’s sports cars were produced for three years from 1969 to 1971. The Manic GT logo looked like a simple black word mark. It was the brand name written in bold capital letters.
Russel
Russell Motor Car Company became famous for manufacturing the first successful automobile in the Canadian auto market. It existed until 1916 and used a logo that featured its full name. The words were written in an elegant cursive script.
Foremost Vehicles
Foremost Vehicles manufactures off-road vehicles for the construction, mining, and oil and gas industries. It produces heavy-duty all-terrain vehicles, dump trucks, drilling machines, and many other specialty vehicles. The company’s logo is a burgundy wordmark “Foremost” with a stylized “F” featuring three stripes.
Grande West Transportation Group
Grande West Transportation Group is the old name of Vicinity Motor Corp., a Canadian bus company. Before the rebranding, its logo featured the phrase “GRANDE WEST” in a bold, stylized blue font. The same blue line was drawn across the top as an arch.
INKAS
INKAS is the brand name under which a group of privately held Canadian corporations operates. These companies offer a range of goods and services, including armored vehicles. Their emblem is a winged lion with a sword, depicted inside a rectangular shield with a pointed base.
Daymak
This transportation brand from Ontario started with a gift. In 2001, its future founder, Aldo Baiocchi, tried to find a good electric scooter for his daughter but could not find one. Then, he decided to open a business to develop, produce, and sell electric scooters. At first, the entrepreneur settled down in a cramped 30-square-meter garage. Then he moved into a store so that customers could study and test the product more closely before buying.
Today, the facility is 60,000 square feet and has over 100 dealerships worldwide. Its appliances have won several prestigious sustainability awards, including the Cleantech North award. The brand’s product range includes electric and SUVs, ATVs, scooters, mopeds, and other vehicles.
Nova Bus
This automaker from the Canadian city of St. Eustache (Quebec) first emerged in 1979, when General Motors opened a plant. Under its current name, the brand was founded in 1993. Its founder was Nova Quintech, which bought the Dial Corporation division. Since 1998, the brand has been owned by Volvo Corporation. In 2004, Nova Bus was fully transferred into its ownership.
New Flyer
The brand originated in 1930 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and produced buses of the Xcelsior line. It was formerly known as Western Auto and Truck Body Works Ltd. In 1937, the company began assembling buses and, in 1941, produced the Western Flyer model. Its name, received in 1948, became the company’s name. Since then, the automobile platform has produced buses in several classes. It has undergone many purchases and sales, so its plants are now in Canada and the United States. The NFI Group currently owns the brand name.
Terradyne
This Canadian armored car company is located in Newmarket, Ontario. It manufactures armored vehicles and specialized vans for various government services. Its range includes government- and private-sector bullet-resistant vehicles. Patrol, police, and multi-purpose armored vehicles are also available under this brand.
Bombardier
In 1942, industrialist Joseph-Armand Bombardier founded Bombardier Recreational Products, whose name was gradually shortened to the acronym BRP. The company’s headquarters is in Montreal (Quebec). It is now a large manufacturing facility focused on automobiles, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and ATVs. It applies its innovations, continuing to win prestigious awards in the Canadian automotive industry. The best examples of this company are the BR180 series snowmobile and two tractors – the B12 passenger tractor and the J5c trailed tractor.
McLaughlin Automobile
The founder of this company is Robert McLaughlin, who opened it in 1869 in Oshawa, Ontario. It represented the transportation business and, for many years, was engaged in car building for railway trains. In 1907, the company’s head reoriented it toward automobile production, achieving high profitability. At the height of its popularity, he purchased the Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada and, in 1915, merged it with his former company. The merger resulted in another organization, which he named General Motors of Canada Limited. The McLaughlin Automobile Company has since ceased to exist.
Gray-dort Motors
Dim Dort Motors, founded in 1855 by William Gray & Sons Company Ltd, was not originally in the automobile business – it was a carriage business. In 1900, it switched to making bodies for Ford at its Walkersville plant. Another five years later, after merging with the Flint Company, she began manufacturing passenger cars. Its debut cars were the Touring Model 5 and Model 4 Roadster. Then came a period of crisis that it could not overcome, and in 1925, it ceased operations. The company was based in Chatham, Ontario.
ZENN Motor Company
Initially, the company was called GoodCars and immediately focused on producing environmentally friendly, low-speed, and electric cars. Jan, Marek, and Probyn “Bunny” Bunny, who opened it in 2000, set this goal. Its current name is ZENN, an acronym for Zero Emission No Noise. All of its transportation products are based on this technology.
Dynasty Electric Car Corporation
Manufacturer of light commercial, recreational, and urban electric vehicles offering miniature versions with a range of up to 50 km and speeds up to 40 km per hour. They were founded in 2001 to produce low-speed vehicles. In 2018, Pakistan-based Karakoram Motors announced the purchase of the company, which it plans to relocate to Pakistan.
Allard Motor Company
The Allard Motor Company has produced about 1,900 vehicles in its 13-year existence. The automobile industry has always fascinated its creator, Sidney Allard. First, he created racing models of off-road vehicles, and then began modifying Ford cars. During this time, the developer accumulated a large number of spare parts, which proved useful after the war, when he founded his own company. Things were going well, and the automobile market was replenished with promising sports cars. To expand the lineup, Allard began producing eight-seat sedans and microcars. But no matter what he did, he could not beat the manufacturers of cheaper and more technologically advanced brands. In the late 1950s, the company closed its plants. Motorists remembered it by its red oval logo with the white inscription “ALLARD” inside.
Orion Bus Industries
Orion Bus Industries has been producing buses under the Orion brand since 1975. Seven generations of vehicles were produced, differing in their main characteristics. In the early years, the manufacturer was called Ontario Bus and Truck, Inc., and after 2006, it became DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North America. Due to rebranding, its logo was constantly changed. Orion buses had an emblem with blue lettering (model name) next to a curved line.
Studebaker
The first Studebaker was an electric car. They brought the company so much popularity that it could increase its production capacity to up to 180,000 cars annually. However, in the 1950s, the company became uncompetitive and was forced to merge with Packard Motor Car Company. Their union was unsuccessful: the combined organization was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1967, the Studebaker brand within Wagner Electric was acquired by Studebaker-Worthington. While independent, it had its logo: a handwritten inscription “Studebaker” in a black parallelogram across the spoke wheel.
Suzuki Canada Inc.
Suzuki Canada Inc. was founded in 1975 as a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan. At the start of its operations, it sold motorcycles, and its staff numbered only 36. The company then began to produce outboard motors, ATVs, and motorcycles. Suzuki Canada Inc. also sold new and used trailers, trucks, and cars in the wholesale market. Its logo featured a large stylized red letter “S.”