Tiaga suspends production

[BeeDoo]

Not surprising, but a bummer nonetheless.

Quebec electric snowmobile maker Taiga suspends production, lays off 70 workers

Montreal-based electric snowmobile manufacturer Taiga Motors says it is pausing production and temporarily laying off around 70 workers.

montreal.ctvnews.ca

 

[boondocker97]

Hate to see any manufacturer culling operations. If nothing else the electric sleds and dirt bikes are an avenue to help keeping local riding areas open that are close to encroaching towns. At least on the noise front.

 

[MTsled3]

Not surprising, but a bummer nonetheless.

Quebec electric snowmobile maker Taiga suspends production, lays off 70 workers

Montreal-based electric snowmobile manufacturer Taiga Motors says it is pausing production and temporarily laying off around 70 workers.

montreal.ctvnews.ca

Did they ever even get production sleds on the snow? Seems like it's been a couple years since they started taking deposits on orders and I've never seen or heard of one in a customer's hands.

 

[christopher]

The company, which also makes electric watercraft, says its decision is in response to a challenging economy and an exceptionally mild winter.

It says its net loss was $72.5 million in 2023, compared to a loss of $59.5 million in 2022.

Taiga says it wants to better align vehicle production with seasonal demand and reduce operating costs.

 

[IDspud]

Sounds like delusion.

 

[christopher]

Sounds like delusion.

Just don't see a mass desire for electric battery snowmobiles

 

[Blu Du]

best thing i have heard in awhile. they can take their electric **** and shove it up their ass

 

[Mafesto]

best thing i have heard in awhile. they can take their electric **** and shove it up their ass

Rock on Sister Hazel!

 

[bb900]

they have taken a boat load of tax payer dollars with them,

 

[IDspud]

Exactly. No other way to take that loss as a startup.

 

[sledhead_24_7]

Was wondering when that was going to happen.

Seems the only way the “green stuff” survives is off the tax payer’s back. Which the $$$$ is the only green about the vast majority of it.

Once the government money stops, they magically cease to exist.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[plumnuts]

Ford is cutting jobs with their EV F150...

 

[koolaid]

Only way they sell this stuff sometimes is having the government force it on us.

Friend reserved a rental car for the day recently to go from LA to San Diego. Got there, told her they had a Chevy Volt for her. Told them she DID NOT want it, give her a gasser. They refused! Made it to San Diego, had a hard time finding place to charge it for return trip. Goes to dealer to charge it, charges it for 45 minutes- GETS 31 MILE CHARGE, that's it. Going to take 6 HOURS to charge to get enough juice to get back to LA. Ends up going to rental place in San Diego, they exchange it for another EV. Drops if off at airport just to barely make flight! Now, they have added $300 in additional charges to her credit card for exchange, drop off at airport , having to charge car, etc.

They force the EV on us when we don't want it then make us pay because the cars and infrastructure aren't ready for normal everyday use

 

[boondocker97]

An article I read a while back said that Taiga's biggest customer was ski slopes. I could see using one if I lived back east to go for a rip down the road ditch after work, but it's not going to last all day on the weekend. Which means you still have to have a gasser in addition to the electric sled. Not a lot of people can afford that. I'm considering a Stark Varg electric dirt bike for local and track riding, but I still need another gas bike for XC races and extended rides.

Plug-in hybrids should have been the first step and much more user friendly for most people than full on EVs. I work in the power industry as an engineer on high voltage transmission line systems (69-500kV). I can tell you for a fact that our electric grid system absolutely cannot handle the EV push that is coming from big daddy government. And with all the limitations we have to work within it is impossible to meet the need in the timeframe they want.

 

[BeartoothBaron]

Meet the Solyndra of the snowmobiling world, and color me not surprised. I too have to believe it's not possible a company could have hemorrhaged that much money for that long without all kinds of government "green" flying around. Some people probably pulled down a pretty nice salary to turn out precious little - that nobody wanted anyway.

Electric sleds are something that might have some function in very limited settings. @boondocker97's mention of ski slopes makes sense, but it's not a practical choice: it's so the Aspen billionaires don't have to hear the nasty rattle or smell smoke (never mind it'd cost a ton of overhead over those nasty old sleds that just work). For mountain riding, it's going nowhere with existing technology. If you keep the battery small enough to achieve a competitive power-weight ratio, you're not making it 10 miles. And that's leaving out the issues of cold and L-ion batteries: your range could be cut in half, it could die suddenly, and it might not even charge. Oh, and if it dies out in the woods or you're staying somewhere off grid or without adequate service, you'll be resorting to gas/diesel power - you just created an inefficient and expensive middleman.

Without a breakthrough in technology, EVs are a niche product. The idea of subsidizing them is stupid and wasteful; the push to mandate them can only be motivated by nefarious purposes. For better or worse, snowmobiles are probably an even worse fit for electrification than cars. Tiaga's failure was predictable. I'm pretty sure several of us called it from the start.