A 2023 Ranger XP Kinetic drives through water and over rocky terrain.
PolarisAs vehicle companies go, there are few American entities that produce a wider range of options than the Minnesota-based Polaris.
Polaris—which is the parent company of Indian Motorcycles, Bennington Marine, Godfrey Pontoon Boats, Timbersled Snow Bikes, and Hurricane Deck Boats—takes on the cold with snowblowers, the sand with RZR Side-by-Sides; and city streets with the Slingshot Open-Air Roadster.
CEO Michael Speetzen oversees the many roots of the Polaris tree, while the winds of change shake its branches. Electrification is already affecting the automotive and motorcycle worlds, while ATVs, snowmobiles, four-wheelers, and other machines built for work and amusement will roll into the same battery-powered future soon enough.
Speetzen talks to Penta about how a multi-faceted mobility company balances internal combustion and electrification across so many vehicle types while keeping its enthusiast customer base happy.
Penta: What is the long-term schedule for the electric transition?
We’re constantly listening to our customers—what they’re wanting out of vehicle performance, how they intend to use the vehicle, and exploring and delivering from there. When it comes to electric, our approach remains the same. We will test and continue to learn what may be possible, but we’ll be intentional on what we bring to market.
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Our teams are continually working on new vehicles and, as we work through our development process, we’ll incorporate electric into the mix when it can deliver a great experience and the performance our customers expect from a Polaris product. Electric technology in our industry is still in its infancy and it is going to be a fun and exciting journey over these next few years.
CEO Michael Speetzen
PolarisWhat benefits does electric provide for your utility customers?
With our all-electric Ranger XP Kinetic [starts at US$24,999], we set out to build the best utility off-road vehicle on the market for our customers, and electric technology is what allowed us to do that. Electric motors are excellent for utility work as they can generate peak torque very quickly and maintain power with incredible precision and control through a wide range of operating speeds—that’s exactly what our utility customers need for big jobs like towing or hauling heavy loads.
An electric powertrain also has fewer moving parts, which means less required maintenance. In fact, we estimate maintenance costs for the Kinetic will be 70% less than the average costs for similar gas-powered vehicles.
Plus, electric is quiet, which is a big advantage for customers who are using the vehicle for operation around animals without disturbing them, quick entry and exit to remote hunting spots, or the ability to work in the early morning without waking neighbors. It’s also incredibly fun to drive when you hit the pedal and feel that instantaneous response.
What challenges does bringing electrics to a utility or off-road machine present?
One challenge we are up against is education for our dealers and customers who primarily deal with gas-powered vehicles. For some, an electric vehicle is entirely new to them so they’re unaware of the advantages these vehicles are able to offer. They have questions on range, power, and charging. We’re working to educate our dealers with this, and putting resources out there for interested customers.
Godfrey’s Mighty G Pontoon last year is designed to be compatible for either electric or gas propulsion.
PolarisHow do you see your loyal customers responding to the gradual onset of electrification?
They’re used to their noisy, rugged off-road transports, but times are changing. It sounds overly simple, but customers want a product that delivers the performance they need. Our job is to understand when and how emerging technologies, like electric, can make the product better for the customer.
We also launched Godfrey’s Mighty G Pontoon last year, which the team designed to be compatible for either electric or gas propulsion. We have seen the Mighty G be a great option for customers looking to boat on lakes that have restrictions on gas engines or horsepower, or the customer just wants a quieter option for fishing or an early morning cruise on the water. In fact, Mighty G customers who ended up selecting an electric versus gas-powered motor option were more than double our expectations.
Of course, we’re always going to have customers that prefer traditional gas over electric, for a variety of reasons, and we are not slowing down our innovation efforts on that side of the business.
Will there always be a place for internal combustion at Polaris, or will acquiring such an engine soon demand a visit to the secondary market?
We don’t see our gas-powered vehicles going anywhere anytime soon, and we have been very clear that we aren’t planning to be all electric by some year in the future. What we will continue to do is test and learn—technology advancements are always evolving—and we are going to continue to engineer our vehicles based on rider feedback and leverage advancing technologies to deliver the best vehicles for our customers.
Do you see the electrical infrastructure in place for this march toward electrification?
Yes and no. When you think about the customer who uses our off-road vehicle for utility purposes, they are on their farm, ranch, a large property, or construction site. The range is less of a hurdle and those customers are storing it in or near a garage or barn overnight where most already have access to charging.
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For on-road applications, we are greatly encouraged by the progress automotive is driving when it comes to infrastructure, but it remains a pain point for many owners of EVs. This is one of the many factors that we are weighing as we think about when it will be right to launch electric products.
Where it gets more complicated is recreational riding, especially for those riders who are looking to take an all-day trail ride for hundreds of miles or are riding out in the middle of the sand dunes, where it chews up a lot more power. Battery technology just isn’t ready to support that kind of range, and, in many cases, customers are riding where there is no accessible power grid, or as we’ve seen in some marine locations, electricity use is restricted near the water.
We are confident that many of these problems are going to be solved, but it will take time.
What do you think your company’s founders would make of the emergence of electric?
They’d love it. Polaris got its start because our founders wanted to find a better way to travel to remote hunting cabins during the Minnesota winter. They welcomed new and different thinking. Polaris has driven a lot of advancements in power sports over the years with the introduction of new technology. We were the first in our industry to introduce independent front suspension in a snowmobile and the first to launch an electronically fuel-injected ATV.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
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