Polaris Industries

Disputed sales of electric cars: the truth behind the confusion

How is it that some analysts put pure-electric car sales at hundreds of thousands in 2012 whereas others report a mere 60-65,000? At analysts IDTechEx, we feel that a lack of rigor is largely to blame because there are cars homologated as such and car-like vehicles that are not homologated as cars.

Electric vehicles land, water and air in 2013 - PART ONE

The hybrid and pure electric vehicle business will continue to prosper in 2013, with profits and growth the norm in most sectors. Laws will proliferate that make electric vehicles the only way to go.

Lessons from EU Project Day on eMobility

In Brussels, Belgium, on November 19, there was a day devoted to presenting most of the European Union projects on eMobility. This is a term used in Continental Europe to mean what they call Full Electric Vehicles (FEV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), mainly on-road.

Brammo drives growth with $45 Million

Brammo Inc., a leading developer of electric vehicle technology and manufacturer of distinctive two-wheel electric vehicles, has closed the first $13 million tranche of a $45 million Series C funding round designed to accelerate the company's development plans.

Predicting success in electric vehicles

This article shares some of the research carried out for the latest in the series of 18 IDTechEx reports on electric vehicles and their components.

New 2012 forecasts for Electric Vehicles

Old electric vehicle reports are useless: the subject is moving too fast. IDTechEx is the only analyst with 18 current reports forecasting sales of electric vehicles and their key components and they are kept up to date. Information is fed into these documents continuously as the PhD level IDTechEx analysts tour the world's companies, research institutes and conferences to spot the many changes in technology and business success and interpret them.

Visit to Polaris Industries Minnesota

Electric Vehicles Research invests heavily to seek out new insights into the EV industry. In recent weeks that has taken us to Switzerland, Germany and Slovenia. In Switzerland we reported on Swissauto, the latest acquisition of Polaris Industries the $2 billion leader in off road vehicles.

How to make money out of electric vehicles

Contrary to popular understanding, people have been making money out of electric vehicles for over 110 years. Unfortunately there have also been bankruptcies in the electric vehicle business in most of those years. The primary difference lies in market positioning not brilliant inventions, working long hours, automation of production, matching the size of your operation to the amount of business you can realistically gain - avoiding over and under-investment - and other aspects that come to mind. Those are sometimes important but always secondary. In market positioning, the two key factors are avoiding excessive competition, including rigged markets, and making what will be wanted in the years to come.

Latest EV trends and dead ends

Europe's largest electric vehicle show eCarTec, that has just taken place in Munich Germany, was an excellent place to see the latest trends and dead ends in electric vehicles.

Visit to Polaris Industries

IDTechEx visited Polaris Industries in Switzerland to learn more about this acquisitive and highly successful company that grew 20% last year, when so many others were fighting for survival. Polaris Industries is world leader in off-road vehicles with $2 billion in sales. It owns lifestyle motorcycle brands Victory and Indian as well as having leadership in snowmobiles and a rapidly growing military activity including small pure electric vehicles.

Electric Vehicle Range Extenders - Rival Approaches

Led by the Japanese and with Hyundai of Korea, the Europeans and the Americans coming up fast, we are in the decade of the hybrid vehicle, with much more being spent on them than on pure electric vehicles. This is because traction batteries alone cannot affordably provide sufficient range in most of the large applications by land, sea or air.

Electric vehicle range extenders - a large new market

This article shares some of the research in the new IDTechEx report, {{Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles | http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/range-extenders-for-electric-vehicles-2011-2021-000276.asp}}. We are in the age of the hybrid electric vehicle which is strongly outselling the pure electric vehicle in market value though not in numbers over the next decade.

Much Bigger e-mobility picture revealed

Electric vehicle parts are not evolving: they are changing completely. Sometimes, the traction battery will be replaced by a supercapacitor or supercabattery and the dumb skin of the vehicle by smart skin. Energy harvesting and range extenders are new key enabling technologies and AC motors are often replacing DC motors. This is an industry in ferment.

Electric vehicle value chain is changing

Currently the key enabling technologies in electric vehicles are motors, batteries and control systems. For the next ten years, add to that energy harvesting, supercapacitors (ultracapacitors) and range extenders that replace internal combustion engines in hybrids, notably fuel cells and mini turbines.

Electric bicycles and ebikes - the next ten years

IDTechEx has issued another report in its series on the various types of electric vehicle - hybrid and pure electric - and their future entitled Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) Industry Worldwide 2011-2021 (www.IDTecHEx.com/LEV). Electric vehicles by land, water and air will be a market of over $210 billion in ten years from now. The segments of this market are very different in certain respects yet they increasingly share some technical challenges and vehicle and component suppliers. This report concerns electric bicycles, ebikes and other Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) that constitute an important part of the overall EV business. Other reports in the series cover aircraft, marine, buses/taxis, military/police/security and cars.

Electric vehicle infrastructure surprises

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure will see a frenzy of change over the next ten years. That will involve how it is made and installed, how it operates and even whether it is needed at all. For example, the 1.3 million electric vehicles for the disabled, obese and elderly being sold this year will rise to over three million in 2021 and none of them will have a charging station - you simply plug them into a regular socket. Registering that the most convenient and affordable charging station is none at all, the e-bike manufacturers have at last started to move in the same direction. Adoption of the new lithium-ion batteries releases a huge amount of weight and space and a charger can now be fitted into the e-bike. That will become more affordable as the years go by. Here are some more of the surprises revealed during the research for the new IDTechEx report, "Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure 2011-2021".

Off-road electric vehicles see rapid change

The highly successful manufacturer of conventional off-road vehicles, $2 billion Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) has recently launched a pure electric Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle NEV. Now it has added the leader in that sector encompassing closed communities rather than open highways. Global Electric Motorcars LLC (GEM), a wholly owned Fargo, N.D. based subsidiary of Chrysler Group LLC. GEM is a leader within the low-speed vehicle market, with approximately $30 million in sales during the 2010 calendar year. Since the company was established in 1998, it has placed more than 45,000 electric-powered NEVs on the road worldwide.