BRP is considering a range of mobility products, with concept sketches including single-seat EVs, motorcycles, scooters and e-bikes.
Canadian powersports pioneer BRP Inc. is expanding into mobility, attempting to leverage its work in electric propulsion to broaden its product lineup, customer base and its bottom line.
The Quebec-based maker of Ski-Doos and Sea-Doos on Sept. 26 officially formed a new Low Voltage and Human Assisted group to explore “untapped product categories.”
BRP said it’s entering a global market worth $70 billion a year, nearly doubling its addressable market. The powersport, motorcycle and marine segments it currently serves are collectively worth $85 billion annually, the company estimates.
“[Mobility] is a wide word and a wide industry,” said Minh Thanh Tran, BRP’s executive vice-president of corporate strategy and the leader of the new group. The company plans to rely on innovation to differentiate itself, he said.
BRP currently employs about 20,000 people and has manufacturing operations in 11 countries.
The company would not disclose how many employees the new group would have but said it plans to fill roles in business strategy, sales, product engineering, manufacturing and services with workers from around the globe.
It is too soon to disclose what types of mobility products BRP will launch Tran said, but early concept sketches include single-seat EVs, motorcycles, scooters, a miniature flatbed and various incarnations of e-bikes.
The move will broaden BRP’s reach, but it might also put it in competition with mobility industry incumbents such as Beijing-based Ninebot and California-based Pedego Electric Bikes, as well as traditional automotive players exploring similar expansion plans.
The company’s early explorations into the new market, which covers the movement of both people and goods, began about five years ago. BRP scoured Asia, Europe and North America to determine what was available for e-bikes, scooters and other modes of urban transportation, Tran said. The company was also working on electrifying its other products, ranging from snowmobiles and boats to ATVs and motorcycles.
“We have invested a lot of money and resources in R&D around electrification,” Tran said, pointing to a commitment in March 2021 to spend $300 million over five years to bring electric models to its product lines.
ACQUIRING EXPERTISE
Tran: Mobility is “a huge market today. There’s space for everyone to innovate and do things differently.”
The company also announced three acquisitions this summer. Each is expected to feed into BRP’s electrification plans and its move into nontraditional markets.
“We wanted to have the expertise for our product line that we have existing but leveraging those [acquisitions] to go into mobility and other markets,” Tran said.
In July, BRP agreed to buy the Austria subsidiary of China-based automaker Great Wall Motor Co., adding a research centre with about 50 engineers who specialize in e-drives and electric-transmission systems.
The purchase of a majority stake in Germany-based Pinion GmbH was announced on Aug. 5. The 60-person team designs and builds mechanical gearboxes for traditional and electric bicycles, modeling the precision shifting systems on automotive transmission technology.
On Aug. 9, BRP announced it would buy the Shawinigan, Que., operations of Kongsberg Automotive, one of BRP’s longtime suppliers of electronics and mechatronics. BRP absorbed about 300 employees when the deal closed last quarter.
FOCUSED BEYOND FUN
BRP has traditionally focused on vehicles as sources of recreation, but electrification “opens a lot of doors” around how the company can redefine the overlap between driving for fun and driving to get from point A to B, Tran said.
“If we can change and improve how people move, that’s definitely part of our mission,” he said.
BRP’s move into mobility mirrors similar early steps by automakers such as Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors, which have eased into the market through a range of concepts and the occasional saleable product, such as GM’s ill-fated Ariv e-bikes.
Traditional auto parts suppliers have also jumped on the trend. For one, Canada’s Magna International in September announced a $77-million investment in India-based Yulu. The mobility tech company operates a fleet of about 10,000 electric two-wheelers in three cities and has aggressive plans to expand to 15 cities in the next 18 months.
Tran thinks BRP is well-positioned to find its niche.
“It’s a huge market today,” he said. “There’s space for everyone to innovate and do things differently. By us focusing on the low-voltage [product market] and making sure that we have innovation at the core of it, we’ll make it a bit different from the others.”
