Electric vehicle lab at Cambrian gives students hands-on experience

Sudbury's Cambrian College unveils EV lab On Wednesday, Cambrian College officially opened its 5,600 square foot Vale Electric Vehicle Lab.

The grand opening of Cambrian College’s new electric vehicle lab kicked off Wednesday with a bang, as mining partners, community members, college representatives and students celebrated the 5,6000-square-foot facility on its main campus.

"In this space here we have just a ton of electrical battery vehicles," said electrical student researcher Jacob Greenough.

"We’ve made mini versions, we’ve gotten large versions donated … Then just learn everything about them, really."

The EV lab is located in the school’s applied research division, where students work with industry partners on paid projects.

"Together we’ll use this space to help prove out some of the duty cycles of these batteries to ensure that they’re the right size and the right fit for what the mines need to do the work," said Mike Commito, director of research innovation.

"In addition to the research, we also do corporate training in this space. So, we’ll be bringing in heavy-duty technicians. They’ll be learning some of the skills to understand how best to troubleshoot electric vehicles."

One of the industry partners is Vale Base Metals, which contributed $750,000 toward the lab. Gord Gilpin, Vale's director of Ontario operations, said the mining company sees the value in research and training.

“We’ve got a huge need for skilled tradespeople to look after and maintain these" electric vehicles, Gilpin said.

"And it’s only going to increase as we move into the future … So this sort of work, as I said, that Cambrian is doing is really important for us."

Cambrian College said the EV lab provides students with valuable hands-on experience while positioning the school and Sudbury as leaders in industrial EV technology.