Over the past two years we’ve commented on virtually every aspect of the potential for a legitimate electric snowmobile. Supertrax/SnowTrax has been 100% honest with where we think this might be heading. Continuing on this theme, I have detected a subtle but nonetheless tangible softening of the previous posture that proclaimed: “everything ICE powered is going electric”.

Contributing to this slight but measurable shift is Toyota’s totally transparent endorsement of Hydrogen ICE powerplants. Frankly, it is refreshing to see a giant OEM claiming the Hydrogen ICE is oh-so-close to becoming legitimately viable as a zero emissions powerplant. This is great news for not only the auto industry but all industries facing the shift away from ICE power.

Look up the reams of info on this subject and you’ll see just what the potential is for Hydrogen ICE’s in the not too distant future. Frankly Hydrogen power could obsolete battery/electric power in a heartbeat and have huge positive implications on the nasty toxic waste issue surrounding mining the minerals to make lithium-ion batteries and discarding batteries now in use and in production.

So that’s one voice standing in the wilderness proclaiming scientific fact. What else is being said about battery/electric power?

The general media has been handwringing regarding the realities of electric car range numbers in cold weather climates. There’s little doubt the range numbers being tossed around in the media are virtually all warm weather climate derived without the vehicles A/C running.

Only a week ago I read a report that virtually trashed the current range claims gradient with this bald-faced admission: Current range claims are all at least 10 percent too high when operating an electric vehicle in a 20F environment.

Okay, that doesn’t sound too terrible. But get this: The article went on to say that if the heater is run the numbers are nearly 30% too high! Ahh, just sayin’, but who is going to drive their car on a 20F day with the heater off?

From crazy comments like the last one to emerging technologies like hydrogen power, to pictures of line-ups at California electric “recharge stations” as a result of too few places to recharge versus the number of electric vehicles in service in California, the boiler plate argument “it’s all going electric” has an increasing number of holes in it.

Honestly, the over-indulgent attitude proclaiming electric/battery power will obsolete ICE has been overstated to a large degree from the early days of electric automobiles. I think we’re in for some eye -opening new ideas that may be immeasurably more suitable to our off-road, cold weather market snowmobiles.

I’ll paraphrase what BRP has said recently: It intends to produce electric powered models in every powersport segment it occupies. Essentially, based on this claim, in the next few years we can expect the rollout of an electric Ski-Doo snowmobile.

On top of this, BRP has announced the purchase of Great Wall Motor in Austria, a subsidiary of Great Wall Motor China, an electric technology specialist in the areas of eDrive systems and transmissions. We suspect most of this expertise is in electrified motorcycles.

This seems like a pretty bold move on its own considering BRP does not participate in the 2-wheeled motorcycle market with an internal combustion engine (ICE) product line. It doesn’t matter; the new Can-Am Pulse and Origin electric 2-wheelers are a reality.

So, what about Polaris? We haven’t heard officially from the Polaris snowmobile division whether it intends to enter the electric snowmobile market. However, Polaris is shaking the ground with the just released state-of-the-art, electric Ranger XP Kinetic.

This all-new vehicle uses lithium-ion batteries and is purpose built as an electric vehicle – not a modified ICE platform. Consider this as well. Polaris has a cozy relationship with ZERO Motorcycles.

The Ranger Kinetic uses ZERO electric motors and numerous other fully developed technologies now available to Polaris from this relationship. ZERO Motorcycles has a substantial amount of market credibility.

So, here’s where we’re at. We expect Ski-Doo to land a full electric snowmobile with strong ties to the “G” series chassis in the next couple years. It’s a no brainer for Ski-Doo to jump into the deep end of the pool with its very first electric snowmobile offering.

The excellent technology the brand possesses, combined with superb manufacturing capability and a strong financial position will get Ski-Doo in the electric market with a solid performing vehicle. Keep in mind at this writing the same range and time to recharge realities will be part of the equation. That is, unless the “Super Battery” appears. BTW: if the Super Battery happens it will most certainly come from automotive battery research first.

What about Polaris? We can’t be sure what Polaris will do about an entry into the electric snowmobile market. Polaris will and are addressing the largest volume markets it participates in. Next – I suspect – will be an electrified Sportsman ATV.

The snowmobile market is, from a unit production perspective, quite small compared to the off-road market and Polaris is very savvy about where it spends its development dollars. An electric MATRYX may be a bit still.

Clearly, our sport, among all offroad sports, demands the most from the vehicles we call “snowmobiles”. The reality of severe cold weather use puts snowmobiles in a restrictive range category using current battery technology.

The remote nature of where we ride restricts or at least slows the development of a credible recharging network.

If electric motor range is tricky at warm temperatures it is surely a giant hurdle in 24-7 winter climates.

This logic is so flawed, so blinkered it qualifies as rationale from the “Twilight Zone”. Why am I even daring to challenge this politically-correct mindset?

First, there is no credible nationwide charging infrastructure close to ready for consumer use. It will be 15 to 20 years before you can strike out on a holiday trip or a cross-country tour with an electric vehicle that can stay toe-to-toe with a gas burning conveyance. The second problem is the continued “no-show” of the much ballyhooed “super battery” promised to deliver comparable range to an average ICE powered vehicle and – this is a biggy – a recharge time of 15 minutes or less (like a gas engine) plus stable performance at any temperature (like a gas engine).

These realities loom large and as such they discourage the wide acceptance of battery power over ICE power in the near future. However, if the Super Battery shows up tomorrow I will acquiesce and accept the fact electric power is practical and here to stay.

Right now, not so much. In fact, check how many electric powered cars are back on the market after relatively short ownership. Many surveys show a high degree of frustration, to the point of purchasers claiming they’ll never buy another electric vehicle.

Okay, that’s my rant for now. Here’s what I think is important for the snowmobiling fraternity to consider. Right now we have one electric snowmobile OEM: Taiga. They have delivered an exceptionally good snowmobile from every competitive aspect of comparison.

Good handling, respectable ride quality, high quality of finish, seamless integration of electric power and the list goes on. So here’s the real issue. Albeit Taiga’s products have a host of top-notch features, they do not, as of this writing, have acceptable range or time to recharge, let alone the potential for a snowbelt wide chain of Super Chargers (Series 3 fast chargers). These realities, all related to electric power are enormous.

Taiga does not claim a range of 100 miles (160 kms) per charge yet. IMO, that’s not going to undermine Taiga’s first couple years of sales. There will be demand from utility/ski hill/poleline/resort/rental operators for the Taiga. What won’t be huge will be the line marked “seasoned, experienced, savvy snowmobilers stand here for the next available Taiga”. Snowmobilers need range, rapid recharging and the ability to resist degradation in cold temperatures.

Okay, none of this info is new. The powersports world, including ATVs, SxS, dirt bikes and the PWC/Marine market are in the same boat (pun intended). Oh, and right now the expectation of an off-road charging network is linked to the super low cost of electricity for the retail automotive on-road market. Does anyone think a resort or rural charging station located on a remote snowmobile trail will “fill you up” cheap? I don’t.

These same operators who sell us fuel in the winter for our sleds are faced with huge costs to stock and dispense gasoline. Everyone who’s done any travelling by snowmobile knows on-trail fuel has always been crazy expensive. With the significant cost of capitalizing electric charging stations and a short season to generate payback on that investment, I expect owners of off-road electric powered snowmobiles prepare for a reality check at recharge stations with, yes, surcharges added to cover those extra on-site costs.

So, we’re staring down both barrels at increased fuel costs for this winter’s riding. What to do? I’m not sure there’s anything our relatively small number of participants can leverage in terms of fuel cost reductions or recovery. Our trucks are going to cost more to fuel and our sleds will, too.

Here’s what I think: How much more jing are you going to spend on fuel this season compared to last winter? If riding the same distance this year costs 50% more than last will you take the winter off? How about 75% more than last winter? What’s your threshold? I know this: The winter riding season is relatively short – about the same length as a northern summer boating season.

Snowmobilers live to ride in the winter and often focus their holiday time on the snowmobiling months. I suspect there will be some who scale back their riding and some who will walk away. However, my sense is the overwhelming majority of snowmobilers will be back – tanks full and ready to ride.

Some of our readers and viewers flat-out tell us they will never buy an electric sled – no matter who builds it; others tell us they can’t wait for sparkies to take over so they won’t smell like 2-stroke oil after they’ve been riding. Hmm.

We’ve already pointed out several times how some huge hurdles have to be jumped over before electric sleds can get a grip on a large portion of the market. The two most talked about are range-to-ride and charging time.

We’ve also discussed the lack of charging facilities and the cost to install a network of same. We’re not going to enlarge on these ginormous challenges we’ve already noted but there are a couple of other issues that could affect the growth of electrics.

First, there’s an awareness we all may be legislated into riding electric sleds as a result of environmental groups having enormous political sway with governments. After all, snowmobilers are what you could call “low hanging fruit” because of the size of our industry compared to, say, the aircraft or auto industry. We’re an easy political target because we’re less significant – even when paired together with the marine or off-road vehicle market.

To put it into perspective, the amount of pollution we, and these other venues create in a year is probably the equivalent of about a week’s use by the other two. However, it doesn’t seem to matter much to those wanting to make political hay.

We’re not saying this is going to happen – but in the late 1990s we didn’t really believe snowmobile OEMs would have to conform to the EPA’s Clean Snowmobile mandate either.

Second, there’s a tendency to believe the snowmobile biz will have to mirror the auto industry’s strong mandates which have the whole auto industry legislated to electric by 2030.

Certainly, this proposal comes from short-sighted politicians with a very limited understanding of what’s really required in the electricity generation sector to get to this goal.

It’s great to think of a squeaky-clean environment with no fossil fuel activity, but what about the environmental effects of ten times more atomic or coal-fired power generating plants serving a totally electric transport system?

Even if the use of atomic energy and coal is banned, there isn’t enough real estate on the continent to put up windmills and solar farms and hydro plants to supply that enormous demand.

Here’s one: As pressure continues on the automobile industry and less gasoline powered vehicles are built, it will inevitably drive the cost of gasoline higher, not lower. An extreme increase in gas prices may propel people into electric snowmobiles. A cost of thirty dollars a gallon would undoubtedly have an effect, don’t ya think?

Frankly, we look at the future of snowmobiling like a merging of events over a long term. The coordinates would be:

1. Acceptability of electric power in terms of charging and range
2. Increasing price of petroleum
3. Performance of electric vehicles, both on and off-road
4. Acceptance and convenience of automobile electric power
5. Growth of power generating capability
6. Government intervention

If these factors keep moving together, we’ll all be riding electric snowmobiles, ATVs, side-x-sides and floating around in electric boats a generation from now.

We recently watched a video of a Tesla Plaid beating the famous 1000-plus horsepower, heavily modified Hoonigan Mustang in a drag race. Pretty stunning. The Tesla owner’s total mods to his car were to tint the windows and have some bodywork performed on a dent in it. That was it!

Likewise, with the tweaking of a microchip, a Taiga can boost itself by 100 horsepower. All speculation aside, it’s hard to ignore that kind of potential.

I mean, how could anyone be seriously thinking about building electric snowmobiles? We and just about every other media group reporting on electric power sang the same song. “Won’t work until range, time to recharge and availability of recharging equal a gasoline powered ride.”

And you know what – those three issues are still at the heart of developing true credibility for electric power in the powersports biz.

Here’s what is both interesting and very telling about the minds behind Taiga. The company’s Phase 1 strategy sidesteps all three of these universally accepted detractors to electric powered snowmobiles. Taiga is focusing its efforts on commercial fleet sales of the new Atlas and Nomad models. The plan is (and it is working) to sell Taiga sleds to the likes of large ski resorts for use as service vehicles on the slopes. The other target is large rental operators in snowmobile tourism areas of the North American snowbelt.

This “Phase 1” strategy is on top of the many Taiga dealers which have signed on to retail the sleds when production ramps up next year. By the end of October 2021, accelerated product demand for Taiga snowmobiles and watercraft amounted to 2,632 pre-ordered units compared to 1,246 at the start of 2021. The split between snowmobile and watercraft is virtually even with watercraft representing just slightly over 50% of orders.

Why do I think these moves mean Taiga “gets it”? Taiga knows there is precious few recharge facilities on any of the myriad trail systems across North America. To behave like a Tesla and start capitalizing trail-based recharge centers would be financially untenable.

Obviously, the snow-mo-biz is not the automobile business in terms of unit volume. However, a ski resort or a snowmobile rental operation could easily afford chargers for a small fleet of Taiga’s initially and expand the availability of charging incrementally over the next few seasons.

Time to recharge and range are the other two bug-a-boos with electric powered snowmobiles. In Taiga’s Phase 1 plan both range and time to recharge become non-issues. A rental operator in a market like West Yellowstone could easily cycle Taigas through their operations recharging units as they return from rides into the Park.

The range issue goes away when you consider many rental operators “chaperone” customers on their rides to prevent accidents and mayhem. In other words, ride (and range) distance is carefully controlled.

So here’s the deal. Taiga has already taken more than 130 multi-unit, fleet snowmobile and Orca electric Personal Watercraft (PWC) orders coming from their Phase 1 target market. That is an impressive accomplishment. As this whole electric snowmobile thing moves forward with the intro of both Ski-Doo and Polaris electric powered sleds, more Taiga dealers are sure to emerge.

There’s no doubt in our minds here at Supertrax and SnowTrax Taiga will continue to expand sled sales through current branded snowmobile dealers in both the US and Canada. As battery technology allows and charging centers become more common, Taiga will surely increase its market reach to include all of us.

Here’s why: No snowmobile OEM can afford not to watch and respond to what is going on in the automotive world.

Let’s just suppose the “Super Battery of the future” happens in the not-too-distant future. I’m talking about a battery with the potential to power a car in cold weather at least 350 miles (580 kms) per charge and with a charge time of 15 minutes.

Yep, that’s what I think needs to happen for electric power to replace the internal combustion engine (ICE).

IT HAPPENS

If you make stuff that moves by ICE power you better be ready to switch a significant portion of your products to electric power. Here’s the problem: There is a ton of misinformation and blow-hard rhetoric in the general media slanted to make one think electric cars have already achieved the above performance and re-charge goals. Fact: They haven’t.

In cold weather locales like the top one third of the US and all of Canada, battery capacity is severely reduced in the winter. Recharge times are still about an hour to achieve 80-percent capacity using the most expensive Level 3 chargers. Think about that reality.

So here’s the inevitable question: BRP announced about six months ago its intention to offer an electric power option for all of its recreational products. That’s Ski-Doo, Can-Am, Sea-Doo and Spyder. A bold statement. However, achieving this goal may not be as complicated as it sounds provided expectations of battery performance are not high.

All these motorized power products offer relatively small space for batteries with the exception of Can-Am’s popular SxS models. That being said, electric motors (not engines!) require much less space than ICEs. To convert a familiar Gen-4 Ski-Doo to electric power would seem to be a fairly straightforward exercise. What it would weigh is a mystery. Taiga did not divulge any weight estimates for the Atlas or the Nomad.

GASOLINE VS ELECTRICTY

Here’s my point. When Taiga landed the Atlas and the Nomad the company got the powersports world’s attention. What they haven’t even whispered as yet is the range these vehicles can achieve using a battery that arguably occupies about the same real estate as a gas-powered sled’s fuel tank.

Without going too deep into this, take a look online at how much space the batteries occupy in any current electric-only powered automobile. As a percentage of the vehicle’s total size, the batteries take up a lot of room in a car. Battery packs for snowmobiles have to fit in a relatively small location and ideally should not be heavy. Right now, that last sentence is an inescapable contradiction.

X-RS EV?

Taiga has set the bar high for any other snowmobile OEM to come to market with an electric snowmobile. However, if you stand back and look at the sophistication and refinement in a Ski-Doo ICE powered sled, it would be pretty cool to take an electric powered X-RS G4 for a good pull. Unfortunately, with today’s current battery technology we think that “pull” would be pretty short.

Seems to me everyone is standing on the sidelines cheering on electric powered transportation devices like they’re equal to and better than ICE powered comparable vehicles. They aren’t – not yet. Will they be in the near future? How much change is in my pocket? Simply put – dunno?

INESCAPABLE HURDLES: RANGE AND TIME TO RECHARGE

So, is BRP’s bold electric announcement bread on the water aimed at hedging bets a super battery will come along in the next couple years? We think it’s smart for BRP to be where it is with a dedicated EV program – at least for the time being.

However, unless the entire electric powered transportation world collectively discovers the “Super Battery”, range and time to recharge – not to mention availability of recharging – will remain powerful deterrents to widespread acceptance of electric powersports vehicles.

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