Polaris & Zero Motorcycles to co-develop all-terrain EVs
Zero Motorcycles teams up with power sports outfit Polaris to come up with electric vehicles, including ATVs and snowmobiles. The companies signed an “exclusive, 10-year agreement,” which Polaris said will help their effort to have an electric version of every vehicle type the company offers by 2025.
Polaris used to make Victory motorcycles back in the days and had begun efforts to electrify as early as 2015 reportedly, then using technology by Brammo. The new move to team up with Zero Motorcycles that clearly specialises in zero-emission technology could now aid the desired switch.
Zero Motorcycles has been making electric motorcycles since 2006, and “this partnership gives Polaris access to more than 14 years of unmatched experience and intellectual property,” the company stated. They currently have nine electric motorcycles in the product lineup, including the recently released SR/S.
For the partnership now announced, both companies hope to seize upon what they think has been an overlooked market for electrification, starting with off-road vehicles and snowmobiles.
Polaris called the “exclusive partnership” also a “cornerstone component of rEV’d up,” the company’s long-term strategy for Powersports electrification. Polaris aims to offer an electric vehicle option within each of its core product segments by 2025, with the first vehicle from the Zero-Polaris partnership debuting by the end of 2021.
“Thanks to advancements in power, pricing and performance over the last several years, and with customer interest surging, now is the right time for Polaris, with Zero Motorcycles as a key strategic partner, to implement our rEV’d up initiative and aggressively accelerate our position in Powersports electrification,” said Scott Wine, chairman and CEO of Polaris.
For Zero Motorcycles, the strategic partnership is the largest in the company’s history. While Polaris will develop, manufacture and sell electrified ORVs and snowmobiles, Zero will deliver the powertrain technology, hardware and software.
Polaris is not the first company Zero has sold its tech to though. The Swiss Eqooder showed an unusual LEV with Zero Motorcycle technology in Geneva last year as reported.
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