Azure Dynamics: Canada's Pre-Tesla EV Pioneer
The Vancouver Tech Journal recently published my piece about Azure Dynamics, a British Columbia-based hybrid and EV pioneer who sold and delivered more than 500 BEVs. (And 1000+ hybrids.)
Azure delivered their first assembly line-manufactured, crash-tested light commercial BEVs to customers a few days before the first Nissan Leaf buyer got their vehicle – but went bankrupt in 2012 after the Ontario Securities Commission barred them from doing a $0.012 billion capital raise.**
I use billions so readers can more easily compare with the oceans of capital Tesla, Rivian and other automotive startups have raised in the years since. So much heartache over such a seemingly small sum...
Petroleum and peanut butter both figure in the article, and you probably won't guess how. So here's another link – I don't want to take traffic away from VTJ.
There's a lot more to be told about Azure Dynamics' story, but given the economics of Canadian media that story would probably have to come from a journalism student on a well-funded research grant. I do want to build to a long-form piece (Canada's most prestigious magazine is The Walrus) but need to approach more companies first.
Given the potential upside Canada lost, I'm sure there's value in learning lessons from "The Ballad of Azure Dynamics". For various reasons a pioneering Canadian company just barely missed riding a big technological wave. (Many such cases. Oh, so many such cases.)
That's painful and expensive enough to be worth remembering and learning from. So that we can put the industrial policy in place so our future startups are better positioned to capitalize on their decades' big waves.
(A big thank you to the Vancouver Tech Journal too. Readers who want to subscribe to their daily newsletters can do so here.)
** This is a rare case where I think a strong regulator was a liability. I'm sure the OSC has saved investors from a lot of scams, grifts and shady businesses. I still wish Azure Dynamics had survived long enough to surf the EV wave that was imminent: a Canadian, British Columbian nameplate of our own in the automotive sector.
And if you've come this far, here's another request to please subscribe. 😊 👉