The rumor was running since several weeks. Today January 15, 2015 Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) officially announced it has acquired the electric motorcycle business of Brammo Inc. Acquisition includes certain sssets, technology and Trademarks. In addition, Polaris is acting as a leading investor in a recapitalization of Brammo that enables the company to focus exclusively on the design, development and integration of electric vehicle powertrains..
Going forward, the two companies will leverage Polaris’ leading position in the global powersports industry to market a variety of electric vehicles utilizing Brammo’s award winning lithium-ion electric drivetrain technology, while freeing Brammo to continue developing its innovative electric vehicle powertrains. Brammo supplies these products, including the Brammo Power™ battery pack and Brammo Power™ vehicle management systems, globally to a wide range of OEMs. As part of this transaction, Polaris will utilize the assets acquired to begin manufacturing electric motorcycles in the second half of 2015 at its Spirit Lake, IA facility.
“We have enjoyed our involvement with Brammo Motorcycles over the past three years, and our excitement about their industry-leading lithium-ion electric drivetrain technology has increased commensurate with their improvements in cost and performance. Polaris and Brammo share a goal of adding the most advanced and highest capability electric solutions to Polaris’ portfolio of leading powersports products,” said Scott Wine, Polaris Chairman and CEO.
Polaris has been a strategic investor and partner with Brammo since 2011. During that time, the companies have collaborated on a number of projects in motorcycles, off-road and on-road vehicles. “Today’s announcement strengthens not only Polaris’ commitment to bringing our consumers lithium-ion electric solutions, but also this partnership’s ability to continue innovating and developing leading electric drivetrain technology,” said Wine. “We anticipate a return on these investments and believe the new alignment brings us that much closer to delivering world-class electric solutions across our products.”
Brammo has designed and developed numerous electric vehicles, including the award-winning Enertia and Empulse motorcycles. Testifying to its capabilities and technology, Brammo motorcycles have won a number of awards including: 2013 Playboy “Motorcycle of Year” and “Best Electric” (Empulse R), 2012 GQ “Best Stuff of the Year” (Empulse), 2011 Popular Science “Best of What’s New” (Empulse), 2011 Motorcycle.com “Best of 2011” and a 2010 Silver Edison Award. In addition, Brammo’s motorcycles have won numerous racing championships including the 2013 FIM eRR North American World Cup Champion and 2012 TTXGP World Championship. The agreement allows both companies to be more agile during the development cycle with clear accountability toward selling products that exemplify Polaris’ standard for delivering world class vehicles.
Meaning that the Harley LiveWire project has already several competitors with a marketable price and a longer range of travel. Wow…
Curios if the move to Spirit Lake will mean an electric Victory, Indian, or if they plan on keeping the Brammo brand name.
Some questions:
– What is the range at nominally half throttle?
– How quickly do the batteries degrade over time?
– What does the duty cycle curve of that battery look like over time?
– What is the battery replacement cost?
-nicker-
Polaris competes with H-D on many levels
Here is just 1 more …
Electric cycles? No Thanks, from either one !!!!!
I’ve been seriously checking out Zero bikes from a nearby dealer here. Not as familiar with Brammo tech but for the sake of discussion let’s assume it’s competitive. With Zero I can use my smart phone to adjust the engine management. 75 mile range if I want sport bike performance, 150 miles if I want maximum range. With electric you get more miles running around in city traffic than you do steady throttle on the highways. If the bike is used as a daily driver the life expectancy of the battery is in the ten year range. Having demo’d them a few times…they’re a friggen blast. Instant torque, flat torque curve, and no trans to shift. Significantly different than a traditional motorcycle experience. It wouldn’t work as my only bike but for a run around fun bike or commuting to work bike they make a heck of a lot of sense. Imagine waking up tomorrow and a very fun bike to ride is sitting in your garage. All you have to do is unplug it. Never go to a gas station, never need to track oil changes, no maintenance at all to speak of. Just get on the gas bike if you’re doing one of those hard core bad-ass biker 200 mile poker runs.
BobS,
The rationale and economics of electric is not as rosy as it appears on the face of it – eg (among many other considerations):
1. Electric is not as ‘green’ as some think. Electric energy plants have a lower efficiency than the typical internal combustion engine. So electric vehicles will (by definition) use more resources to more people/goods. Therefore going electric will in fact be going backwards – irrespective how good the battery technology. What has to improve is electric energy generating technology.
2. If (hypothetically) everybody changes to electric vehicles – will the electric energy grid be able to cope? Obviously not.
Both the above can only be addressed by one mode of electric energy generating technology – namely nuclear. And ‘nuclear’ energy is today a swear-word worse than Charlie Hebdo.
Electric vehicles have been around longer than the internal combustion engine – I think there is a very good reason that it remains on the fringes.
The real reason that the internal combustion engine is becoming an incongruous entity, has nothing to do with the technology, but rather with a topic that is not very PC: ie there are too many people.
The real question here is . Why .. seeing as how the Blammo [ Brammo ] has been such an abject sales failure across the board [ it may be a media darling but the consumer public aint buyin it ]
1)Is Polaris in need of a ‘ lost leader ‘ for a major corporate tax deduction ? [ yes thats a legitimate business tactic ]
2)Having a sudden need for self destruction ?
3)Looking for an excuse justify a foreseeable bankruptcy ?
4)Been delving into Dr Tim’s wares a little too much lately ?
5)Drinking the water from GM’s source perhaps ?
6)Not enough engineering talent or creativity to come up with something of their own ?
Why ? In as far as competing with MC though . Well . They aren’t ! In any way shape or form . Especially in light of the fact that the MC has yet to commit to manufacturing the LiveWire
PS; Sigfreed – You got that right 150% and then some !!!!!
TJ Martin. You just demonstrated that you don’t understand business. The issue is not if Brammo is profitable or not. Polaris buys the electric motorcycle technology to save time to be ready, like Harley, for the future of motorcycling. With this deal, Polaris is going ahead of Harley. They havenow an engineers structure already functioning. It’s not about Polaris selling Brammo bikes. It’s about Brammo working for Polaris. Then Brammo as an entity will probably disappear.
Actually Sigfreed got it completely wrong. An electric bikes energy usage is the equivalent cost to getting over 400 miles out of a gallon of gas.
1. It’s much more efficient to produce energy from one large facility then it is from thousands of individual engines. Doesn’t matter if the large facility is coal, nat.gas, nuclear, wind, solar, or other.
2. If we were really worried about where the electricity would come from we’d get rid of all of our electronic devices and appliances. Oil is a finite resource, electricity is not. If we need more electricity, which we always will with a growing population. We do what we have always done, build another electricity plant. Or put up another windmill, or solar panel, or whatever your prefered choice of production is.
3. Why? Answer: profit. For future reference, that’s always the answer to why a business produces a product. T J you say Brammo has been an abject sales failure, what’s your evidence? Do you have their sales figures, production costs, and P and L statements? In addition to being a major investor in Brammo since 2011 Polaris also purchased GEM and has had it’s own electric vehicle division for years now. They streamlined manufacturing, incorporated the products into their existing distribution, and increased sales over 250%. Doesn’t sound like abject failure to me.
BObS & Drake – Actually you’re both dead wrong ! A) Drake your comprehension of business leaves much to be desired . Investing heavily in the technology all , including BMW , VW-Audi, Daimler Benz etc are betting has a maximum of a 5-10 year lifespan at a marginal and unprofitable level at best is a fools paradise . The Point … of business .. is profit ! B) And as far as EV’s overall are concerned . Rhetoric & Theory sounds mighty good until confronted by the hard core reality of the facts . And the facts are … EV’s are dead in the water regardless of what its supporters may say D) Oh … and Drake ? Hate to clue you in but the MC is way ahead of the game financially and every other way sideways with Polaris/Victory/Indian playing a futile game of catch up … which will catch up with them once the current rage for heavy cruisers once again diminishes and the last man standing will be as always … the MC . And on that you can bet the bank on ! E) BobS – The numbers on Blammo’s sales are there for the asking . And the fact is calling Blammo’s sales an abject failure is being more than a bit kind ! Take a moment . Pay attention to the Financial and Business news . And chose to do a bit of research rather than buying into the propaganda on offer .
T J I do pay attention to real business reports and news. And no, Harley-Davidson ads do not count.
BobS – BWTM . In case this news flash thats been around now going on the last five years has passed you by . Every major supplier of electricity from ConEd to PG&E and everyone in between has been repeatedly sounding the warning that the Grid as it stands is on the brink of collapse due to excess demand – no new power plants on the horizon – and demand expected to only increase as our dependency on electricity increases – and that any further increases in demand due to EV’s will bring the inevitable even sooner than current projections are claiming . And here’s a hint that disproves your 400 mpg theory . Like to know what the equivalent mpg of a human being riding a bicycle is ? 90 mpg . So much for any EV getting 400 . Pure unadulterated Myth ! As far as the 250% myth heres a business insiders hint . Never take a company’s figures at face value unless the full context is included and the numbers have been verified by an Independent 3rd party . Because … as the TV character ‘ House ‘ so often said . ” Everybody lies ” And there are no rules in the SEC etc to stop them from doing so !
If the numbers on Brammo’s sales are there for the taking…then produce them. Oops Brammo (was) a privately held company that did not release sales figures. Who’s dead wrong now? Your also dead wrong about every major energy supplier. Mid-American energy has increased production drastically over the last five years. But you’re partially correct, we have a grid problem. Not a production problem. Production is easy. Getting cranky Americans on board with fixing the grid is near impossible. We could very easily have an abudance of electricity by using solar where the sun shines, wind where the wind blows, nukes where people don’t live, coal where the coal deposits are and gas where the gas deposits are. We just need a 21st century grid to get the power from the source to the people. But try telling an American that some of his tax dollars are going to build a grid that somebody else might get a benefit out of and he’s dead set against it. If 100 dollars of his taxes return him 200 dollars of benefit he’s against it if it means someone else gets a dollar’s worht of benefit too. No free stuff for those lazy losers, let them build their own grid!
TJ Martin. You just proved again that you don’t understand business and how a company must invest in its future. And you know nothing about the profitability of Brammo (your sources? You are an insider? LOL). And it’s not the point of the Polaris investment in the electric bike technology.
How cool would it be zero to 60 mph faster then any other bike. No spending money on mufflers. Just wind in your ears,
1) Polaris has owned a partial share of Brammo since 2011.
2) Polaris is a multi legged company with a continued appetite for long term expansion opportunities. It would be better to compare it to Honda who is also a multi legged company.
3) What if they are not concerned about green technology but an opportunity to offer an alternative mode of two wheeled transportation to a tech savvy younger consumer group who is focused on all things electronic.
4) Speaking of electric the grid is having serious issues because everyone reading this blog is using a electronic device hundreds of million if not billions of electric devices from cell phones to lap tops consume considerable amounts of electricity. The dams which were built here in Washington were built when people were lucky to have a handful of outlets in their homes. The grid has been outdated for probably 20 years with the advent of personal computers and no one figured you would be using mobile devices much less HD Monster Screen TV’s. So the grid is a completely different off topic issue from electric bikes. I doubt anyone wants to live without their electronic devices.
Regardless of how the electricity is generated or how it gets to you, the actual seat of the pants riding experience depends mostly on the technology your chosen E-scooter uses to stores and apply electrical power as you go tooling down the road.
Two issues come to mind.
-1- How smooth does the throttle modulate the power (notch response sucks).
-2- How long before you notice the battery degrading in its ability to hold a max charge.
So think about how your electric razor works.
That good crisp charge goes away faster & faster over time.
Sure your razor may still work on a degraded battery, but shaving sucks.
Sort-a-like a golf cart that crawls back to the club-house after the 16th hole.
Just saying.
-nicker-
Electric vehicles at this point are a novelty at best. Until they can come with battery technology that gives you the same range as a tank of gas and then be able to recharge in the amount of time it takes to fill up a tank of gas and then provide a infrastructure to be able to fill up the “average” consumer line me will not buy it. It’s has great advantages as far as less maintenance and all that jazz but the cons far outweigh the pros at this point.
nicker, I can tell you that the ones I’ve ridden were incredibly smooth. Regarding the battery degradtion I think you might be thinking of nickel-cadmium batteries. Those batteries had to be “conditioned” when new and did degrade rather quickly as far as my cordless tools were concerned. Lithium-ion is far superior battery tech. No need to condition, partial recharges won’t effect capacity, and a pretty nice long service life. At least what I’ve read and been quoted a 10 year service life on these battery packs is expected, ymmv of course.
Ludicrous proposition that the Milwaukee business model is some undeniable force. It has been well executed for a time and place and now benefits from its momentum. Love it or hate it, it’s showing its age and the numbers reflect that.
Polaris sports a diversified manufacturing portfolio that continues to expand. On the two wheeled front there is clearly an effort in Spirit Lake to consolidate a number of niches. That method has its own landmines but, unlike the primary domestic manufacturer, Polaris is well insulated from fiscal catastrophe due to a consumer loss of interest in a particular market space. Again, the numbers don’t lie.
As far as electrics go, this infrastructure concern is real. It’s also like the dangerous intersection by your house. You beg for a a streetlight there but nothing happens until the mayors kid gets killed in a wreck. Until the important switches no longer turn on important lights nobody has the will to spend the money on infrastructure. One fine day that will change and not just here where we were raised on the petroleum teat, but globally where the real money is for emerging technologies.
It’s amazing how many of you sound just like generations of past who are now senior citizens — the people that you criticize
Unable to accept technology and its advances and health of steady growth.
Compare today to yesterday. The fact that the past is never coming again. God forbid!
Those who always know what will work and what won’t, are paralyzed by the thought of advancements.
How will I act and what will I do without a clunky hot motorcycle without a flapping noise? The mentality is that no one will recognize me and my stature, not to mention my self-esteem. Electric !
Hopefully the suppliers this past year to Brammo will get money owed to them!
Quite simply, I wish Polaris good luck. Let’s see what shakes out between Zero and Brammo. More choice is better for the consumer/rider.