If you'll allow me to paraphrase the great Three 6 Mafia, "It's hard out there for an electric powersports startup." We've seen countless companies come and go in recent years, and even some we thought would be mainstays have disappeared.
Of course, fly-by-nights are always involved when you get some new technology breaking out onto the scene, but even relatively stable (from the outside looking in) have had trouble maintaining some semblance of productivity and revenue generation. I mean, I would've thought Energica would still be here. That said, Harley's LiveWire is on the precipice of failure and it has the Motor Co.'s might behind it.
One company that nearly went away, but was saved at the last minute, was the Canadian outfit Taiga. The manufacturer made its bones building electric snowmobiles and PWCs, but declared bankruptcy late last year. A few months ago, however, it was saved with some key investments made by Vita Power and the Export Development Bank of Canada.
And now it's saying it's resumed production of its Orca PWC (badass name and my favorite animal, by the way), but only after making a few key upgrades to the machine. Hopefully, history doesn't repeat itself, though.
Based on a press release sent out by Taiga, it "has reached an important milestone restarting its manufacturing operations and beginning customer deliveries of the new MY25 Orca watercraft that features new innovations, including significant advancements in battery performance and faster charging times." What sort of advancements and new innovations you ask?
According to the company, it's developed a better battery cooling technology that allows not only for up to 65% more power, but also "enables double peak DC fast charging rates." The original specs for the Orca were about 180 horsepower and charging speeds on a DC fast charger of 0 to 80% charged in just under 20 minutes.
As for how that occurred, Taiga states that the company found "A novel approach to optimize fluid flow across lithium-ion cell hotspots has increased thermal transfer rates and temperature uniformity in the battery pack, enabling up to a 65% increase in continuous battery power in warm weather marine environments. Alongside recent software updates, the increased cooling enables extended peak charging rates and reduces DC Fast charging times to under 30 minutes." Whether that's fully charged in under 30 minutes or to 80%, however, remains to be known as Taiga doesn't elaborate.
What's more important than updated specs, however, is the resumption of production as the company shuttered the facility when it went into insolvency.
"Taiga will continue to strategically ramp up production at its advanced manufacturing facility in Montreal, Quebec," says the release, adding, "Taiga plans to begin producing new electric snowmobiles in the fall of 2025 to satisfy growing international demand for its products. This will continue to grow jobs and technological leadership within the Canadian EV industry."
Growing jobs will be important for the company, as the company laid off a lot of people both before its restructuring and during, so ramping up production may be difficult if the workforce isn't yet in place.
Personally, I hope Taiga succeeds, as I do think it's a very cool experience to explore the great outdoors without the sound of an engine whining in the background. I just hope the company's on better footing than it was before.
