Innovation is often talked about in boardrooms, product launches, and engineering meetings. But sometimes, it shows up in a school shop, surrounded by steel tubing, welders, hand tools, battery components, and a group of students determined to build something that actually works.
That was the spirit behind the Edison Motors EV Challenge, an electric go-kart competition that gives students the opportunity to design, build, and race their own electric go-karts. The challenge brings together hands-on trades training, electric vehicle technology, fabrication, teamwork, and problem-solving in a way that feels less like a classroom exercise and more like real-world engineering.
According to Edison Motors, teams design and build electric go-karts around an Edison-supplied powertrain, then bring their completed vehicles to Donald, B.C., to race while gaining practical experience with batteries, motors, fabrication, and engineering. VMAC was proud to sponsor and support Kwalikum Secondary School’s team, including transporting the student-built go-kart to the competition.
VMAC’s support did not begin and end with sponsorship. Throughout the school year, VMAC sent a coworker to Kwalikum Secondary each week to work alongside the students and teachers as the go-kart took shape. That ongoing involvement gave students access to practical manufacturing experience, hands-on guidance, and encouragement from someone familiar with the realities of building, testing, adjusting, and improving equipment that has to perform.
The result was impressive: the team placed second out of 21 teams, a major achievement for students who built the vehicle through classroom learning, practical skill-building, and a lot of determination.
Building More Than a Go-Kart
The student project began with a clear objective: design and build a functional off-road go-kart while applying welding, fabrication, design, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. The project was created by students in the welding program and gave them the chance to move beyond theory by building a safe, durable, working vehicle.
They were interpreting designs, making fabrication decisions, testing ideas, adapting when something did not fit, and learning how one choice affects another. A frame angle, weld location, steering setup, suspension decision, or mounting point can change how a vehicle handles, holds together, and performs. It was a “measure it, cut it, weld it, test it, fix it, and try again” project.
The students were responsible for mocking up the frame, developing the cart blueprint, building the chassis, refining structure and stability, and making final adjustments before race day. The work helped students improve their welding, fabrication, teamwork, and safe shop practices while also increasing interest in trades programs.
Why This Project Aligns With VMAC
VMAC’s support of the Edison Motors EV Challenge is a natural fit for a company built on innovation. VMAC designs and manufactures mobile air compressors and multi-power systems in British Columbia and is one of the few true air compressor manufacturers in North America. VMAC’s in-house manufacturing includes engineering, machining, fabrication, assembly, testing, and specialized production capabilities at its headquarters.
VMAC understands the value of hands-on technical skill. Behind every high-performing product are people who know how to design, build, test, improve, and manufacture with precision. Engineers, fabricators, machinists, welders, assemblers, quality teams, and technical specialists all play a role in turning an idea into something reliable enough for demanding work.
The Edison Motors EV Challenge reflects that same practical mindset. Students are challenged to think independently, make real design decisions, and build a vehicle that can compete. The event is intended to strengthen engineering skills, critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and teamwork while giving students room to research, learn, and develop original designs.
That is exactly the kind of experience that helps prepare students for future careers in trades, manufacturing, engineering, transportation, and clean technology.
Supporting the Next Generation of Builders
For VMAC, community involvement is more than just writing a cheque or putting a logo on a vehicle. It means showing up consistently and supporting students as they build confidence, develop practical skills, and work through real technical challenges. In addition to providing weekly in-school support at no cost to Kwalikum Seconday School, VMAC also helped ensure the go-kart could make it to the competition, giving students the chance to see their work tested outside the classroom. That step is important. A project changes when it leaves the shop and enters the real world. Suddenly, every weld, bracket, steering component, and design decision has to perform under pressure.
The Kwalikum Secondary School team’s second-place finish was not just a race result. It was proof that the students’ planning, fabrication, and teamwork paid off. Their project showed what young people can accomplish when they are trusted with real tools, real responsibility, and real expectations.
Innovation Starts With Opportunity
The Edison Motors EV Challenge is more than a race. Edison Motors describes the event as an investment in STEM education, helping fund materials, event logistics, and scholarships for participating students.
That purpose matters to manufacturers like VMAC. Canada needs skilled tradespeople, engineers, fabricators, machinists, technicians, and practical problem-solvers. Those careers do not begin only after graduation. They often begin much earlier, when a student discovers they like building, repairing, designing, testing, or improving something with their own hands.
Proud to Back Community Innovation
VMAC has always believed that innovation is built by people who are willing to do the work. That belief is reflected in VMAC’s own story, from the invention of the first vehicle-mounted rotary screw air compressor to the development of multiple product lines that continue to support mobile work across demanding industries.
Supporting Kwalikum Secondary School’s Edison Motors EV Challenge team reflects that same spirit. It is about backing students who are learning how to build, solve problems, work together, and push ideas from concept to completion.
VMAC congratulates the students, teachers, organizers, sponsors, and volunteers who helped make the project and competition possible. For the VMAC coworker who spent the year working alongside the students and teachers, the Edison Motors EV Challenge was an exciting finish to a fantastic year of mentoring, learning, and seeing students grow through hands-on work. Placing second out of 21 teams is something to be proud of, but the bigger win is the experience those students will carry forward.
The Edison Motors EV Challenge was an exciting finish to a fantastic year of mentorship, hands-on learning, and collaboration for VMAC and Kwalikum Secondary.