More than a dozen Canadian companies have joined hands to produce a ‘green’ car made of hemp. To be run on electricity, the prototype design of the car — to be called Kestrel — will be unveiled at the Electric Mobility Show at Vancouver in September.

A consortium of 15 Canadian companies will design the green under Project Eve which aims to build environmental friendly cars on the long-term basis. The four-seater will have bio-composite body made of hemp — which is the name for cannabis (bhang) plant.

It will run on batteries with 4.5 to 17.3 kilowatt hours of energy. The car will reach a top speed of 90 kilometers per hour. It will have a range of 40 to 160 kilometers before needing to be recharged, de-pending on the type of battery, it was reported on August 23.The first 20 cars will be delivered next year.

Hemp-fiber is said to be as strong as fiber-glass — used currently to make car bodies — but much lighter and less expensive. Henry Ford had built his first car made of hemp fiber and resin more than half a century ago. “It’s not an original idea (to use hemp-fiber),” Nathan Armstrong, president of Calgary-based Motive Industries which will test the prototype, said. He said the idea wasn’t developed much further as car manufacturers’ favored steel. In subsequent decades, fiber-glass and carbon fibre-based composites gained popularity as they are strong.

But producing these composite is very energy intensive whereas hemp-fiber grows in a field using the energy of the sun. Further, it is twice as strong as any other plant fiber, he said. “As a structural material, hemp is about the best. Plus, it’s illegal to grow it in the US, so it actually gives Canada a bit of a market advantage,” Armstrong added.

The Canadian auto industry is the eighth largest in the world, with major US and Japanese automakers having assembly plants in Ontario province.