BRP said it will invest $300 million during the next five years in an effort to roll out electric power across its line of on- and off-road vehicles, including Sea-Doo PWC.
The company is dividing the work into two areas: energy and torque development. An Electric Vehicle Development Center will be formed in Canada to integrate the charger and battery pack into the vehicles. A location in Austria will develop the inverter and electric motors. (The Rotax electric power unit in BRP’s Sonic E-Kart was conceived and built there.)
“We are thrilled to create our EV expertise center, taking steps into the world of electrification,’’ senior vice president of global product strategy Bernard Guy said in a statement. “Experts on our EV team will feel the agility of a startup environment but will benefit from BRP’s financial resources and state-of-the-art equipment to design our in-house technology.”
BRP said the first product is expected to be market-ready within the next two years, followed by a rollout to existing product lines by the end of 2026.
“We have always said electrification was not a question of if but a question of when,” said president and CEO José Boisjol. “We are leveraging our engineering know-how and innovation capabilities to define the best strategy for developing electric-powered products.”
In a separate statement, BRP said it beat expectations for its fiscal year 2021, which ended Jan. 31, with 25 percent gains in powersports sales in North America. However, its marine segment saw a sizable decrease due to the discontinuation of Evinrude outboards.
