The Latest Breaking News from Polaris

Despite the reversals, the sliding backward into internal combustion engines, and the rhetoric around electric vehicles, they're probably the future. And not just because the Earth is warming at an alarming rate. 

It's a strange time in the powersports world lately, with some companies definitely faring better than others. Among the ones having a particularly tough time last year was Polaris, which already instituted cost cuts in 2024 that included cutting about 10 percent of its employees.

For plenty of motorcycle and powersports manufacturers, 2024 was a year to forget, financially speaking. KTM all but imploded, and the cost-saving measures employed by Polaris are bleeding into 2025. So how, then, in the midst of all this, did Piaggio Group—owner of Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi, Gilera, Scarabeo brands—manage…

Let's just check the stock market, which I haven't checked in hours, and oh my god, why is everything deep in the red? What happened? Did a nuke just get set off in London? Did that dumb boat get stuck in the Suez Canal again? Did aliens come down from…

I got to drive a Polaris Slingshot ages ago. One of my friends had one and we'd decided to take it to the industrial park behind my then-apartment complex to shoot some dope dusk photos with the Los Angeles skyline in the background. I'd never really understood the allure of…

I've been to Glamis a handful of times throughout my life, and each time it gets better. There's something almost spiritual about the dunes. Especially at sunset, with the sun fading in the background, the heat rising off the sands, and a batshit UTV behind you. It's a special place,…

Imagine you own a powersports company, and you have one of the coolest engines on the market, but you only use it in one vehicle. That's not just silly; it's borderline mean to your demographic—BRP, please take some notes and stick that 325-hp rotax engine in something else.

[UPDATE February 14, 2025: A spokesperson for Indian Motorcycle responded to RideApart's request for a comment. Here's their full statement.

King of the Hammers is, for lack of a better word, batshit. For those who've never heard of it, it's an off-road race in California's Johnson Valley, and marries rock crawling with flat-out open desert racing. There's nothing else on the planet like King of the Hammers. 

The powersports industry hasn't felt stable since before the COVID epidemic. There was a feast a few years ago when overlanding and general powersports activities exploded in popularity. And now, it appears the famine is upon us, well, actually, it has been for a while.

While trolling the patent office's database a few months ago, we came across a rather interesting-looking patent by our good friends at Polaris. It was, at the time, wild to see, as the patent drawings showed a race-ready UTV. But the machine in question was just slightly different compared to the…