Big news coming from the electric motorcycle camp today, as Polaris announced that it has acquired the electric motorcycle business from Brammo Inc. In addition, Polaris is acting as a leading investor in a Brammo recapitalization that allows the company to focus exclusively on the design, development and integration of electric vehicle powertrains.
Going forward, the two companies will leverage Polaris’ leadership position in the global powersports industry to market a variety of electric vehicles using Brammo’s lithium-ion electric transmission technology. In the meantime, this will allow Brammo to continue developing its electric vehicle powertrains. Brammo supplies these products, including the Brammo Power battery pack and Brammo Power vehicle management systems, worldwide to a wide variety of OEMs. As part of this transaction, Polaris will use the acquired assets to begin manufacturing electric motorcycles in the second half of 2015 at its plant in Spirit Lake, IA.
“We have enjoyed our involvement with Brammo Motorcycles over the past three years, and our enthusiasm for their advanced lithium-ion electric drivetrain technology has grown with their improvements in cost and performance. Polaris and Brammo share a goal of adding the most advanced, high-performance electric solutions to Polaris’ powersports product portfolio, â€said Scott Wine, President and CEO of Polaris.
The deal allows both companies to be more agile during the development cycle with a clear responsibility for selling products that exemplify Polaris’ standard for delivering world-class vehicles.
Polaris has been a strategic investor and partner of Brammo since 2011. During this time, the companies have collaborated on a number of projects in motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and on-road.
“Today’s announcement not only reinforces Polaris’ commitment to providing lithium-ion electrical solutions to our consumers, but also the ability of this partnership to continue to innovate and develop power transmission technology of tip, â€Wine said. “We anticipate a return on these investments and believe the new alignment brings us much closer to providing world-class electrical solutions for all of our products. “
Considering Polaris’ stake in Victory and Indian Motorcycles, the experience, resources and capital that Polaris brings to the table can only be seen as positive in the e-bike landscape.
While we don’t know about Polaris’ long term plans with Brammo, a more immediate prediction is of Polaris / Brammo / Victory / Indian beating rival Harley-Davidson and Project Livewire to the punch of the electric motorcycle. Either way, Polaris is clearly positioning itself to become a major player in the e-bike / alternative energy game.