In the mainstream news, we have seen no shortage of companies pulling out of business operations in Russia and with Russian-aligned firms, as a reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That growing economic and financial influence is also coming from the motorcycle industry, as we can count Harley-Davidson and Polaris as joining that list of brands who have made a stand against Russia’s hostilities.
With the departure of Scott Wine from the powersports industry, the question coming into 2021 was who was going to lead Polaris Industries going forward.
We still don’t have a definitive answer on that, but we do know who will be leading the company’s house of brands as it looks for a permanent solution, as Michael Speetzen has been named the interim CEO for Polaris.
A news item that got lost in the shuffle, there is some pretty big news from Medina, Minnesota as Polaris CEO and Chairman Scott Wine has announced his departure from the American powersports company.
This is a shake-up for Polaris Industries, as Wine’s tenure at the American firm has been some of the company’s best, with sales more than tripling and Polaris joining the Fortune 500 listing during Wine’s time as CEO and Chairman.
Most notably, Wine oversaw the takeover of the Indian motorcycle brand, which continues to gain marketshare against Harley-Davidson, and he closed the struggling Victory motorcycle brand in the process.
Polaris Industries and Zero Motorcycles have inked a 10-year deal that will see the two American companies partnering on electric ATVs, side-by-sides, and snowmobiles (but not motorcycles).
While the 10-year duration might be an ambitious commitment, we do expect to see the fruits of this partnership to debut in just a year’s time, with the first model from this partnership expected to come in 2021.
The plan is for Polaris to develop, manufacturer, and sell electric powersport products that use Zero’s drivetrain hardware and software components.
This gives Polaris a jump on electrifying its fleet of vehicles, while it gives Zero some much needed cash from selling drivetrain systems.
President Trump’s trade war is about to see another player in the motorcycle industry jump ship from American soil, and this time it is heavyweight Polaris Industries.
According to a report by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Polaris is considering moving some of its production capacity to Europe, eyeing a production facility in Poland that would build units for the European market.
The move is a direct response to the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union on motorcycle imports, which itself was a response to the Trump Administration’s taxing of steel and aluminum imports.
Polaris Industries says it is working on a new electric motorcycle, to replace the now discontinued Victory Empulse TT model that was scrapped when the Minnesota company closed the doors to the Victory brand earlier this year.
According to a report from Reuters, the new electric motorcycle will be released under the Indian Motorcycle brand name, and will be focused towards riders who ride for pleasure, rather than those who commute or do long-distance trips.
Episode 43 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and it focuses on the demise of Victory Motorcycles, which was recently shutdown by Polaris Industries. Of course, when we say that the show focuses on just this one topic, we mean that in the Two Enthusiasts’ sense of the word.
As such, from the ashes of the Victory discussion spring forth a myriad of topics, the current landscape of the American motorcycle industry, the rise of a new generation of motorcyclist, the industry’s slow willingness to change, and how that all plays into the products and actions we seeing manufacturers making.
There is a lot to chew on in this 75-minute show, and we hope you find the episode as interesting as we do.
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!
Trademark applications with the USPTO show that Polaris has registered “Victory Charger” as a mark to be used with “electric motorcycles and structural parts therefor.”
The application is a strong hint that we could see an electric cruiser from the Victory brand, which is owned by Polaris, in the coming future.
The news is especially timely, as Polaris just acquired Brammo’s electric motorcycle business, and plans on building electric motorcycles at the company’s facilities in Spirit Lake, IA.
As if there wasn’t already enough fuel for the fire, on a product roadmap for investors, Brammo listed an “eCruiser” as a possible future model — a model that could easily be repurposed for the progressive Victory cruiser brand.
Polaris Slingshot owners should take note, as Polaris Industries issued a “Stop Sale & Stop Ride” this week for two issues found on the Slingshot.
As the name implies, this special recall advises all Slingshot owners to stop riding their three-wheelers, and all Slingshot dealers to stop selling the vehicles, until the two issues are resolved.
According to an analyst from UBS Investment Research, Indian Motorcycles is on track to outsell its sibling company Victory Motorcycles in 2014, its first full year of sales since the company’s recent rebirth.
If this prediction turns out to be accurate, this will be a huge feat for Indian, considering the fact that the American brand only sells three models since its relaunch in August of last year, compared to Victory’s current 15 model lineup.
Polaris Industries has announced that it has bought back 3.96 million shares of the company’s stock from Fuji Heavy Industries, for the tidy sum of $497.5 million — roughly 6% of Polaris’ total market capitalization.
Paying for the stock purchase with roughly $247 million in cash, and $250 in credit, the move is a response to Polaris’ continued push to develop its own engines in-house.
For some background, Fuji Heavy Industries was the sole-engine supplier to Polaris from 1968 until 1995, at which time Polaris began developing its own power plants.
Despite that shift nearly 20 years ago, Fugi has had an integral part of Polaris’ business up until this point, and in 2013 one in four engines in the Polaris model lineup was built by Fuji Heavy Industries.
For 2014 onward though, the use of Fuji engines is expected to drop as Polaris produces more of its own units.