Investors favour Powersports as Taiga goes public

Electric snowmobile and watercraft maker Taiga is going public through a SPAC deal and is raising a whopping 100 million CAD in its wake. The Montréal-based company had vowed to electrify powersports back in 2015 and today joins the growing number of EV makers looking to grow big on the stock exchange.

Still, with Taiga products being essentially niche, their merger with CGGZ and the associated C$100 million is impressive. In Euro, that is over 65 million or close to 80 million US-dollars. What is more, they will have an implied market capitalization of about C$537 million ($422 million) after the combination with the Canaccord Genuity Growth II Corp. That valuation includes a C$100 million private placement with investors, including John Risley’s Northern Private Capital.

We first took them truly serious when they went to snowmobile series production in less than a year in 2019. Only three months later, that is September ’19, their all-electric jetski followed.

Both models pack a punch with batteries ranging from 23 to 27 kWh capacity. But then, the company claims to outperform conventionally-fuelled Powersports vehicles. For example, their snowmobile does 62 mph in under 3 seconds and can travel 140 km on a single charge.

In a separate press release, Taiga also announced a partnership with ABB to deliver their AXC and DC charging wall box in the Terra line.

Back to the SPAC announcement, Taiga Motors cofounder and CEO Sam Bruneau said that they would use the funds “to accelerate our existing production capabilities and execute on our pre-orders while moving full speed ahead with plans for a second, mass-production facility, which will significantly increase our capacity by 2025.”

The company currently has a facility in Montréal that expects to boost production to 2,000 vehicles a year by the second half of 2021. Rumours have it that Taiga plans to build a factory in Shawinigan, Quebec, capable of rolling off t least 50,000 units a year.

While Taiga had hoped to deliver the first electric snowmobiles and jetski late last year, deliveries appear to have been delayed, likely due to the pandemic. They now envision to get zero-emission vehicles to customers in autumn 2021. Pre-orders in North America and Europe are open and require a $500 deposit online. Taiga snowmobiles start at $15,000.

The SPAC deal is expected to be completed in April.

bloomberg.com, taigamotors.ca (ABB)