You don’t realize just how much noise an ATV makes until you kill the engine in the backcountry. A serine silence envelops you, the wind rippling across a ridgeline, moving branches and bushes, swaying the tall grass. The creek you’d been riding adjacent to you suddenly comes to life with sound. The silence is deafening after you’ve been running out the 1000cc four-stroke engine sitting beneath your seat.
On a ranch or farm, a typical ATV can often be heard across the property. A low growl as you ride from fence post to fence post, or haul things from one side of the farm to the other. It can be disruptive to livestock or the horses you keep in the corral. When using an ATV for hunting, the noise it makes can alert game to your presence long before you arrive. And while most hunters will use an ATV to access hard-to-reach locations, hiking the rest of the way in, there’s still a need to keep things quiet as much as you can.
As it turns out, quiet is precisely what Can-Am’s new E-ATV is. So much so that during our test ride at Turpin Meadow Ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I was worried I might spook a grizzly bear wandering in one of the meadows we’d crossed during the course of the day. But quiet is also one of the major selling points Can-Am is pushing with its all-new ATV, which is powered by its Rotax E-Power Unit using an 8.9 kWh battery. The company saw the need for a low-maintenance utility machine, and filled the void using their 1000R Outlander G3L platform as a starting point.
But before I tell you how the test ride went, let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: range.
The 8.9 kWh battery has a 6.6 kWh level 2 integrated charger, which can take the Outlander Electric to 80% of charge in 50 minutes, according to Can-Am. The overall range, however, is listed at just 50 miles, in optimal conditions, based on the World Motorcycle Test Cycle (WMTC) rating. That said, the average utility range developed by Can-Am's internal team was 31 miles on a full charge, with the machine being ridden in both four-wheel and two-wheel drive. Can-Am conducted more than 30,000 miles of testing in harsh conditions (think Canada in the winter), with operating temperatures ranging between - 4°F and 104°F.
The company's testing was done predominantly off-road and included using the machine for towing, as well as with a full payload. While the official range is 50 miles, it’s nice to see an OEM offering an honest number regarding the range of an all-electric vehicle, although it won’t share the formula used to devise its average, so we’ll just have to take Can-Am's word for it.
Can-Am is not positioning the Outlander Electric as a trail rig, though. Instead, the company's hoping customers lean into the utility side of an ATV, using the rig for hunting, fishing, and farm or agricultural tasks. That said, I presumed this admission would set the tone for our test ride, likely using the E-ATV to tow logs around the ranch (which we did) or hauling hay bales out of the barn. But considering the Outlander Electric is built on the same platform as the Outlander 1000R that I test rode earlier this year, I knew some tomfoolery would take place, intended or otherwise.
Beneath the seat sits a Rotax E-Power Unit that makes 47 hp and 53 lb-ft of torque, and that’s plenty of horses for those unfamiliar. The motor is liquid-cooled with a three-way valve that directs the coolant to optimize battery performance. There’s no CVT, which means no belt to break and leave you stranded. Instead, the Outlander uses direct drive, along with a Visco-Lock front differential to put the horsepower to the ground. It sits on new XPS Recon Force tires, which I can say never lacked for grip in the variety of conditions we encountered.
There’s electronic power steering, regenerative braking with three different modes, and an on-the-fly reverse gear (just double-tap the start button while you’re in gear), which proved useful when making tight turnarounds on the trail. There are also three different engine modes – Work, Normal and Sport—the first of which includes a speed limiter that you can set as low as 3 mph (maxes out at 12 mph) to aid in towing or, in our case, dragging the groomer around the horse arena.
High gear allows the rig to rip along at 50 mph, and Sport mode made the thumb throttle rather snappy, encouraging the tomfoolery I talked about earlier.
There are other features that folks interested in an all-electric ATV would find useful, like an integrated battery heater that can be activated while the machine is plugged in, heating the battery while simultaneously charging it, which is especially important in freezing or below-freezing temperatures. The Outlander Electric uses the same charging cable as Can-Am’s Pulse and Origin motorcycles, which is the same as all North American EV vehicles, save for Tesla. And as for towing capacity, that's the same as the ICE model, rated for 1830 lbs. There’s also a new five-inch color TFT display, LED lighting all the way around, along with custom wheels and colorways (Bright White and Granite Grey, with a camo edition coming later) to differentiate from the ICE models.
Turpin Meadow Ranch provides front-door access to 2.5 million acres of Teton wilderness and is nestled on the banks of the Buffalo Fork River, located between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Our trail ride began at the lodge, with Outlander Electric units awaiting us when we arrived for breakfast. The silence of the machine was matched only by the tranquility and quiet of the wilderness that surrounded us. After thumbing the Outlander Electric’s power button, the TFT display lit up, announcing the machine was fully charged and ready to ride. I pulled the gear lever into High and tapped the thumb throttle just to get an idea of what I was in for, as the Outlander lurched forward, all four wheels turning simultaneously. The silence, though, was deafening. Only the crunchy sound of 26-inch tires turning over gravel could be heard.
This was going to be interesting.
According to Can-Am, the Outlander Electric weighs only 25 lbs more than the standard Outlander 700 XT, which tips the scales at an estimated 858 lbs., respectively. It carries its weight differently, though, as the battery pack is positioned low in the chassis. Underway, the first thing I noticed was just how similar it felt to the Outlander 1000R that I tested last year.
And while that machine made 100-horsepower, the throttle response and linear power delivery from the Outlander Electric were impressive, my arms outstretched, trying to hold onto the handlebars as we ascended into the surrounding mountains.
With 9.75 inches of suspension travel and 12 inches of ground clearance, there’s little that can disrupt your ride on the Outlander. We made our way away from the ranch, up winding dirt roads, eventually turning off onto a notably unmarked trail, and cut through tall grass and tree fall. There, a hill climb presented itself, though fallen timber littered the track up, which was edged on either side by swaying pine and spruce trees.
In Work mode, the Outlander’s power delivery was smooth and predictable, and we took turns running up the hill for a photo opportunity. On my second shot, I switched into Sport mode, and the power delivery was noticeably different. Instant acceleration was coupled with an unrelenting flow of energy into all four wheels. Again, though, there wasn’t a sound aside from what I was riding over—the turning of tires and the wind rushing through my helmet was all I heard.
We descended onto another dirt road, twisting and turning toward the top of a ridgeline where views of the Tetons were, unfortunately, obscured by the smoke from surrounding wildfires. The Outlander rides flat, for lack of a better descriptor. Body roll was nearly unnoticeable, although some could be felt when I switched the machine into 2WD and Sport mode, sending the back side sliding into corners.
But that’s to be expected.
Our return to the ranch provided us with an opportunity to use the Outlander Electric for the sorts of activities it was intended to perform. We groomed the horse arena, utilizing Work mode and its provided speed limiter to maintain a 3 mph crawl. We towed logs chained together behind the ATV, showcasing its 1,830-lb tow capacity. And after lunch, we made a run back into the mountains to test the Outlander's ability to climb steep, rocky terrain with the transmission in Low and power being provided to all four wheels.
In all, the Outlander Electric feels much like its ICE brethren.
The 47-hp, while less than what’s on tap when riding the petrol-powered 1000R model, is constant and consistent, giving you more than enough “juice” to get yourself into and out of trouble - turns out 52 lb-ft of torque makes things move! The five-inch color display is easy to use, the range is more than adequate for most use cases, and there’s nine gallons of on-board storage available, along with the same line of accessories (think cargo boxes, stereo, chainsaw mount, winch, etc.) that are available for the ICE Outlander models.
The “on-the-fly” reverse gear (simply hold the power button for a second while the machine is on and it toggles between forward and reverse) was a feature I didn’t know I needed until trying to turn ATV around on a tight trail, and saved me from furiously trying to shift the gearbox from H to R to H again. And the Outlander Electric starts at $12,999 USD, but comes with a 5-year, 12,427-mile (20,000-km converted for your convenience) warranty on the battery. So it isn't all that much more than your average ATV.
So, if you’re shopping for an ATV that can tow, haul, trail ride, and carry a passenger (assuming you opt for the Max model and have friends), and aren’t too concerned with traveling more than 35-ish miles before returning to your ranch, the Outlander Electric should be on your prospective list. Is it right for everyone? No. But I definitely see where it fits into the spectrum of ATVs available on the market, and how someone could find it to be the perfect tool.
