Sad news broke late last week as General Motors (GM) announced it was closing its Kapuskasing, Ontario center, a location dedicated to cold weather testing. The company says the work done there had become redundant.
“Through continuous improvement, our cold weather testing capability has greatly improved and evolved, and issues can now be found at the source at the supplier and development stages,” GM Canada said in a statement shared with Automotive News.
The vehicle test center, recently specializing in electric vehicles, was GM’s only cold-weather durability test site in Canada. It tested all GM vehicles destined for North America.
The facility, located about 800 km north of Toronto, typically tested vehicles five to seven years before production.
Des bornes de recharge au centre de Kapuskasing, en Ontario | Photo: General Motors
We had occasion to visit the facility in March 2023 at the invitation of GM Canada. Significant investments had just been made. Since 2015, GM has spent more than $16 million to adapt the site to test electric models.
Sadly, the closure closes the book on over 50 years of history for the center. Going back even further, GM began testing vehicles at that location in 1941 with WWII in full swing.
As Automotive News recalls, the center grew over the years to the point where in 2023 it covered 272 acres, up from the original 23. The site included a 3.6-km test track, 13-vehicle garage, 30 cold cells for freezing weather testing (with temperature controlled at minus 45 degrees Celsius) and a tunnel where you could drive on bumpy surfaces to detect body noise. Among the other facilities that cropped over the years, a now-abandoned airplane runway, a battery lab and plenty of chargers for electric vehicles, including six offering a capacity of 400 kW, which is not yet on the market.
Le centre de Kapuskasing, en Ontario | Photo: General Motors
GM Canada said the site had “made significant contributions to GM’s North American cold weather testing for more than 50 years.” The center employed approximately 25 full-time people. The company said only a small number would be affected.
The closure also affects the municipality, including hotels, restaurants and local businesses. We felt it when we visited there, the center was a source of pride for the residents.
Unfortunately, the way employees were informed of the situation left several of them bitter. A source contacted Auto123 to share with us their feelings about the decision and how they learned the news.
“The notice to its unionized members came by way of text, voicemail, or email or not at all, the morning of the 18th. No real reason given, no in person interaction, no face to face, no councellors present or available, just a cowardly electronic notification.”
Our thoughts are with the affected employees and the people of the community.
