Polaris is on a roll. Their own multi-line ATV, snowmobile and motorcycle business is doing very well, they’ve taken on Indian Motorcycles and now they’ve invested in Brammo. All of those Brammo customers who have been waiting for their Empulse to arrive may finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.
As the press releases below explain:
Polaris obtains access to their proprietary electric vehicle powertrain technology, as well as exposure to the rapidly growing electric motorcycle market.
This could be a very powerful combination. Good move, Polaris!
Polaris and Brammo press releases follow:
Polaris Press Release:
Polaris Announces Investment in Brammo
Powersports Leader Acquires an Interest in Electric Motorcycle Leader
MINNEAPOLIS (10/26/2011) — Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) today announced a minority investment in Brammo, an Ashland, Ore.-based maker of electric vehicle technology and two-wheel electric vehicles. By investing in Brammo, Polaris obtains access to their proprietary electric vehicle powertrain technology, as well as exposure to the rapidly growing electric motorcycle market.
“We are excited to advance our electric vehicle capability by establishing Polaris as a business partner and part owner of Brammo, one of the most innovative and aggressive companies I have found in the electric motorcycle space,†said Scott Wine, Polaris CEO. “Our companies share a passion for performance, and I look forward to exploiting the numerous opportunities created by pairing Brammo’s industry-leading electric powertrain technology with Polaris’s vast array of market-leading powersports products. This is a small but important investment for Polaris in an electric vehicle market that we feel is poised for significant growth.â€
Founded in 2002, Brammo has made its mark by developing electric vehicle technology tailored specifically for the motorcycle segment. Brammo currently offers the Enertia line of motorcycles, capable of speeds in excess of 60 mph and ranges up to 80 miles on a single charge. Brammo plans to expand their product line to include high-performance sport motorcycles capable of more than 100 miles on a single charge, as well as a full line of entry- to high-performance dirt and dual-sport motorcycles.
“We have always been impressed with Polaris’ leadership within the motorsports industry. Polaris is a company founded on innovation and quality, and as such their decision to partner with Brammo is a resounding endorsement of our technology,†said Brammo CEO and founder Craig Bramscher. “This is a terrific scenario for Brammo’s customers, as we bring Polaris’ legendary engineering, manufacturing, and customer service expertise to bear on our products.”
In addition to utilizing Brammo technology in its own products, Polaris will collaborate with Brammo to grow their core business. Polaris and Brammo each bring distinct competencies and assets to this partnership, and share cultures centered on a passion for excellence and innovation. This combination of capabilities and culture will allow Polaris and Brammo to create and seize opportunities that neither could capture independently.
Brammo Press Release:
Brammo Drives Growth with $28 Million Series B and Forms a Strategic Partnership with New Investor Polaris Industries.
Ashland, Oregon, USA October 26, 2011 – Brammo Inc, a leading developer of electric vehicle technology and manufacturer of two-wheel electric vehicles, announced today that it has closed a $28 million Series B funding round designed to accelerate the company’s development plans.
The final tranche of the Series B was led by Polaris Industries and included further contributions from existing shareholder Alpine Energy, while adding NorthPort Investments LLC. Polaris, a recognized leader in the powersports industry joins the team as a key strategic partner for Brammo, bringing opportunities to broaden the range of markets for Brammo Electric Vehicle (EV) drivetrain technology and expertise.
“We are excited to add Polaris Industries as a valued strategic partner. Brammo and its partners are combining forces to gain dominance in the EV powersports market,†said Brammo, Inc., Founder and CEO Craig Bramscher. “We now have the ability to maintain our high standards of quality while we innovate and commercialize at speed, and this enables us to better serve our customers and build a sustainable advantage. Polaris is the clear leader in powersports and our manufacturing partner, Flextronics, is a global leader in electronics manufacturing. Our products are the synthesis of powersports and electronics. Polaris and Flextronics present the best possible partners to help Brammo achieve the scale and prolific product development plans we have for the coming years.â€
The foundation of Brammo’s success lies in its innovative battery and powertrain technology, which is integral to its expanding product line, including the Enertia – urban commuter, Empulse – sports motorcycle, and Engage and Encite – supermoto and off road motorcycles. This same EV technology has potential in both the powersports and the low speed vehicles markets. The intent of Brammo’s strategic partnership with Polaris is to enhance Brammo’s leadership in the 2 wheeled EV space, while broadening its reach in terms of product development, geographic reach and aggressive growth; all while continuously improving quality, performance, and customer service.
Flextronics enables Brammo to scale through time efficient procurement, supply chain optimization, and high quality assembly. Additionally Flextronics is partnering with Brammo on its battery packaging design and is providing design for manufacturing (DfM) services to Brammo. Currently producing the Enertia at its Sarvar facility in Hungary, Flextronics is about to begin producing the Brammo Powerâ„¢ battery packs at its Frickenhausen facility in Germany.
B50 Jim says
Polaris is showing what an American manufacturer can do with forward-looking people at the helm. I wonder of Harley is paying any attention? At the rate things are going, Polaris will eat H-D’s lunch in a few years.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Harley is making jewelry for men, not motorcycles.
Tin Man says
How can every post be turned into a Harley bashing topic?? Polaris is growing and thats good news, hopefully someday they will grow enough to give H.D. some serious competition. The Indian Brand will help give some street cred to Victory, I guess its good to buy into Brembo just to cover the market in case electrics ever get competitive in the market. Go Polaris!!
Hawk says
Who would have thought ….. an Electric Indian !!
Dabber says
What B50 Jim said!! Diversify and conquer. Now just make a sport bike and a adventure touring bike and blow away the competition. My Victory Kingpin was a quality motorcycle, but I have moved on from cruisers. No more chrome polishing for me.
Yeti2bikes says
I still think that if you want to sell electric motorcycles you have to price them to compete with the twist and go scooter market. If the customer base you’re going to attract with a product like that can be satisfied by a $2,000 scooter, you’re never going to sell them in any quantity.
Ken says
I bet this is more about making electric side by side units than making motorcycles. Sure, it gives Brammo an established and hopefully growing dealership network. Polaris has been dabling with E ATVs for a while now. It only makes sense to make a product that can take market share from the electric golf cart market. Every resort I worked at had a couple Cushman’s or EZ-GOs around. But they really didn’t do the job when it came to landscaping, etc. This could really get them into that market. If they succeed there, then it might lead to trail worthy units and that will keep trails open in areas where noise polution is cited for trail closures.
GuitarSlinger says
Well this is truly a sad day in motorcycledom indeed
First Polaris buys Indian , promptly re-releasing the piece of dreck the old Indian was trying to sell back into the showroom
Now the news that like so many others who are completely clueless as to the realities/smoke & mirrors of the current crop of E/V’s the news hits that Polaris is investing ( read wasting ) their money on the Brammo pretentious bit of M/C fluff
Am I the only one to notice that Brammo sounds like an Ad straight out of ” The Groove Tube ” ?
Brammo , the newest product from the company that brought you Brown 25 . Uranus Corporation . All kinds of good things are coming from Uranus .
Richard Gozinya says
Always reminded me more of Ren & Stimpy. Then I can’t get that song out of my head.
Steve says
As exciting as a new toaster….BLECCCCH!
Hawk says
I continue to dismay at the hype about electric vehicles. Lets consider two basic facts:
Electric power does not magically appear in a wall plug. Other than solar (wind, hydro etc.) it must be generated … in most cases by burning fossil fuels or, perish the thought, nuclear. So what is the tradeoff? Emissions from a large generating station or from several small ICEs? Granted, the large installation is probably more efficient but we are just shifting the pollution.
Secondly, how long do we seriously think that the tax man will ignore the loss of income on motive fuels? A large chunk of our fuel cost is taxes. Locally we are paying about a buck forty a liter with almost 50 cents going to taxes. Some bio-fuels are being taxed now and, if electric vehicles become much more popular, that wall plug is going to be a lot more expensive.
Just a couple of points to think about.
Decline says
The numbers have been crunched over and over and it works out better overall to charge despite the wall plug not being magical. Though I’m not much of an electric fan outside of finding the tech interesting. Hydrogen fuel cell tech I find far more compelling. But then I want to drive home and plug my house into my car, not my car into my house. …where are you hywire?…
That all said, I do find I keep thinking about what jay Leno said, that electric was going to do for the car what the car did for the horse. It wont kill it off, it will just save it for recreation usage.
…course then I look at things like the shell Eco challenge and want to know where my 1500+ mpg are. That challenge is probably so shell knows who to kill before they get into college…just joking…just…
More motorcycle related, the electric races are just weirdly silent and exciting to watch again. Nothing is dialed in and they are all dialing it so differently…
OMMAG says
Ha … an off road vehicle that will get you into the back country and leave you there unless you have a couple of dayswith sunshine to charge it up with solar cells … or you can take along your pedal powered gen set … or a gas powered generator to get enough charge into the thing to get back home.
Steve says
The future of transportation may indeed lie largely with electric vehicles BUT this would most likely be in the utilitarian realm: commuting, shipping and the like, “need-to” uses.
Recreational and otherwise enthusiast oriented transportation as a social phenomenon may be forced to disappear entirely in future generations save the area of nostalgia and classic collection.
Most of the supposed “Future Of” type predictions and other trends I see do suggest it, IMO.
Steve says
Electric vehicle technology is great, but until they can improve the battery/capacitors to hold more potential energy and be quick to recharge, I’m afraid it’ll be a niche market.
B50 Jim says
Most of the research into electric vehicles is going into improving charge time and density. The first company that develops a high-density battery with a charge time of minutes rather than hours will own the transportation sector. That being said, it’s a steep climb with some very hairy technical obstacles such as handling huge amounts of electrical power, but the profit potential is enormous. But once the business world smells big money, it will pour R&D cash into development. We’re past the horseless-carriage stage of EV development, but a long way from the digitally-controlled turbo-diesel stage. Still, given the amount of effort going into it and the increasing rate of technological development overall, we could see practical EVs within a few years. And remember, the same technology for improving the batteries applies to improving solar-electric panels, so the two could yet go hand-in-hand. I for one would love to have a solar-powered recharging station on my garage. All that sunlight now only bakes my vehicles on a warm day; it might as well go to work making those vehicles run.
Nortley says
Is Polaris going to work with BLM and the Forest Service to plant current bushes?
B50 Jim says
Maybe they’ll install outlets in the trees. “Plug into a Pine!”
Paulinator says
I just got back from a couple of transit bus shows that were held in NA and Europe. I saw a lot of EV development from all sides…power-train mfgs, bus builders, Ballard Power (ya, they`re still around), Turkey, China, Germany, US of A, etc. It`s not something that`s coming…its arrived.
I`m going to mount my 15 watt solar panel on the hood of my jeep…just in case I have to drive it out on the starter motor:)
Cowpieapex says
I love my fire belching, bellowing american twin.
I love My horse.
I suspect Mr. Leno is correct though.
As I have said in this forum before, some day soon we will find it difficult to explane the charm of our noisy, vibrating, fire prone, fragile and slow, combustion vehicles to the youngsters racing past us in their newfangled electric machines.
Matt says
As stated before It’s doubtfull this investment has much of anything to do with Victory or Indian motorcycles. Polaris has been selling electric utility vehicles for some time now and is looking to expand it I bet.
hoyt says
@ the above commenters that think electric transportation technology is not going anywhere – don’t you think by now the very smart people involved would have seen the writing on the wall if EV was a pipe dream? We are talking VERY smart people and very rich people.
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Buell lessons re-surface here..(no Tinman, this is not an HD bash).
Hypothetically-speaking…if HD had offered Brammo the same or sweeter deal, would Mr. Bramscher politely decline or sign-up?
Based on Mr. Buell’s treatment, it would not be a giant leap to think all of the EV companies would pass on HD.
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The Mission Motors bike (the current, trellis-frame one) has got my attention and I didn’t think highly of electrics until that bike came to being. Brammo should consider similar styling for a performance bike
cWj says
I’ve been disappointed that a street standard has not come out of Polaris yet, but this is intriguing – and it’s always nice to cheer for a company that appears focused on producing products instead of an attractive stock offering.
One wonders who approached whom; whether ZERO was ever involved.