Construction and paving work resumed this week at the General Motors Canada McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track in Oshawa Ontario, with work now expected to be completed later this year.

An official grand opening is planned for the spring of 2021. The multi-million-dollar investment was announced in May 2019, at the time of GM’s Oshawa Transformation Agreement when GM invested C$170M in its Canadian operations. The testing facility and track are the first in Canada’s automotive industry specifically purposed for the testing of advanced General Motors vehicle software and technologies that will enable a future vision that is self-driven, all-electric, and highly connected.

The 55-acre operation on the south end of the Oshawa plant expands GM’s Canadian technology footprint to four sites and over 900 staff. With campuses in Markham and Oshawa and a cold weather testing facility in Kapuskasing, the GM Canadian Technology Centre (CTC) is one of Canada’s largest automotive software development clusters and GM’s largest advanced technology centre outside of the U.S.

“While the COVID-19 situation slowed progress, we are back on track and we look forward to officially opening this new jewel in the Canada Technology Centre crown early next year,” said Scott Bell, President and Managing Director, GM Canada. “Technology testing is a critical part of high value-added research and development work in our business and Canada is proving to be an ideal place for GM to expand its engineering work for the future.”

Upon completion, the track will support developing software and hardware for advanced vehicle systems including vehicle motion embedded controls (VMEC), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous vehicle systems, infotainment, and advanced technology work to help GM fulfil its vision for a future with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion.