The billion dollar contracts are coming thick and fast for Kelowna's Hexagon Purus Systems.
The first deal for the battery-pack maker is with an undisclosed international truck manufacturer and is worth US$800 million over three years or US$1.2B if extended two years.
While the truck company's identity is currently secret, Hexagon indicates you'll know the name because it's well-known globally.
The second agreement, also worth US$1.2 billion, is with Hino trucks, a division of Toyota.
"These are the biggest automotive contracts in Western Canada," said Hexagon Purus Systems president Todd Sloan.
"Kelowna has quickly become the battery-pack capital of Western Canada."
The two massive contracts effectively put the Kelowna battery-pack manufacturing factory at capacity before it even goes into production.
The 60,000-square-foot factory, at 2150 Matrix Cres. in the Kelowna Airport Industrial Park, is under construction right now and will be ready for battery-pack assembly sometime early next year.
For competitive reasons, Hexagon isn't revealing what the capacity of the Kelowna factory is.
But, we might get a clue from the fact that 17,000 battery cells, like big AA batteries, go into a single battery pack suitable for installation under the cab of a truck to eliminate the need for gasoline or diesel fuel.
Sometimes a truck needed two such battery packs.
Sloan mentioned the Kelowna factory can assemble enough battery packs a year to make "thousands of trucks" battery-electric.
By the way, electric trucks are a hot commodity in the transport industry because the technology is good for the environment and zero-emission vehicles are the wave of the future.
Hexagon is currently negotiating with battery-cell makers to supply the volume the Kelowna factory requires so the cells can be built into battery packs.
Hexagon is also in the midst of hiring the 100 employees it needs to run the Kelowna factory.
Most immediately it needs five kinds of engineers -- manufacturing, electrical, mechanical, chemical and software.
It will also be hiring labourers, production and material handling staff.
Hexagon will also be putting orders in with Kelowna metal fabricators for parts needed to assemble the battery packs.
"The plant will be highly automated with robotics," said Sloan.
"It will truly be the first of its kind in Western Canada."
The so-called 'micro-factory' was envisioned as Hexagon's Canadian headquarters and research and development and design and testing facility.
There's another factory in Los Angeles that's already installing battery packs in trucks.
Once in production, the Kelowna facility will supply the Los Angeles Hexagon with battery packs.
A third factory, in an undisclosed location, is scheduled to open in 2025 and more will come as Hexagon amasses more contracts.
"We might try to build some more capacity into the Kelowna facility," said Sloan.
"But, really, the Kelowna factory was meant to be a prototype that could be used as we expand across North America."
Sloan added Kelowna doesn't necessarily make sense, logistically, as a battery pack manufacturing hub because it's not close to heavy-duty truck makers in the US.
However, Kelowna has the enviable lifestyle and standard of living that attracts the talent that Hexagon needs to run its Canadian headquarters, factory prototype, research and development and design and testing.
Sloan knows all about the lifestyle, after all, he grew up in Kelowna, graduated from Okanagan Mission Secondary, went off to the University of Victoria and returned to start predecessor company enviroMECH.
Hexagon Purus is the battery-pack and hydrogen-fuel-storage-systems spin off of Norway-based clean-energy solutions company Hexagon Composites.
Therefore, Hexagon Purus stock is traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange, where today shares were trading at the equivalent of CDN$3.41.
Over the past year, stock has been as high as CDN$8.91 and as low as CDN$2.16.
