Cannabis.  The word is full of nuances.  It can be said as “pot,” “hemp,” “weed,” “ganja,” “that stuff that George Washington grew,” “Mary Jane,” “biocomposite body panels”…

Photo from Fast Company

The CannaCar, which designers officially call the Kestrel, is being developed in Canada (Canna-Canna-Canna-duh!)* by a company called Motive Industries.  The plan is to take an electric car platform (good start), use hemp to make as many of the body panels and other non-metal parts as possible, and then put the car on the road.

Obviously, Up In Smoke is popular with the Canadians and some of them took it pretty seriously.  I mean, really.  A car made of cannabis?  Too bad accidentally starting it on fire by mis-positioning the exhaust won’t get the cops high.

The vehicle’s body panels will be made of hemp-based bio-composites (basically biologically-derived fiberglass) and some of the interior bits will also come from hemp (cloth, some plastics, and whatnot).

The hemp composites themselves will come from fellow Canadian company Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) – wow, a sentence as a company name; that’s awesome.  The raw hemp itself will come from hippies in Alberta who make rope, sandals, necklaces, and other flea market items on an industrial hemp farm in Vegreville.

Motive hasn’t given a date for production, but the CannaCar Kestrel will have prototype models for testing later this year.

Also seen on CannaCentral.

*This stuff just comes to me. I could do this all night. And I don’t even smoke.  Imagine if I did toque up what kinds of things would be forthcoming… I know, mind blowing huh?

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