Jose Boisjoli, president and CEO BRP Inc., poses inside their research and development plant in Valcourt, Quebec, May 30, 2019.Christinne Muschi/The Globe and Mail
After nearly four decades, the storied Can-Am brand will bring motorcycles back to Canadian roads early next year – and they’ll be electric.
Can-Am is owned by Quebec’s BRP Inc. DOO-T and makes the Spyder and the Ryker three-wheeled vehicles – two wheels at the front and one at the back. It used to make championship-winning motocross bikes, back in the 1970s and ‘80s when it was owned by Bombardier Inc. BBD-B-T, but the last motorcycle was produced in 1987. That was long before the Bombardier Recreational Products division was spun off and sold to a group of investors in 2003. Products include the Ski-Doo, Sea-Doo and Rotax engines.
Now, the company will produce the Pulse road bike and the Origin adventure bike, both powered by the same 8.9-kilowatt-hour battery that was introduced in a pair of electric snowmobiles earlier last year. They’ll be assembled in Mexico and sold in Canada, the United States and nine European countries.
“What we’re offering is a completely different experience than driving a combustion-engined motorcycle,” says José Boisjoli, chief executive officer of BRP Inc. “I’ve been riding snowmobiles since I was 10 years old, and it’s the same thing: Because our electric snowmobile is quiet, you are now part of the scenery. You are within the experience. There are a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts at BRP and we all feel the same.”
Neither bike has a lengthy range: the Pulse is rated for up to 160 kilometres with a 75-kilogram rider and the Origin for up to 145 kilometres, and that claimed distance is roughly halved at a sustained highway speed of 80 kilometres an hour. There are no larger batteries available. However, the batteries will recharge at a Level 2 charger from 20 to 80 per cent in 50 minutes; at a Level 1 charger, such as a typical household socket, a charge from zero to 100 per cent will take five hours and 15 minutes.
The Pulse road bike will have a range of up to 160 kilometres.Courtesy of manufacturer
There’s no transmission, so you just twist and go, like a scooter. Both bikes include a distinct power regeneration feature when the throttle grip is twisted away from the rider: It slows the machine without using the brakes and sends the energy it creates back to the battery. A liquid cooling system regulates the temperature of the battery, charger, inverter and motor, ensuring an optimal range and charging time while helping to preserve the life of the battery. The automatically tensioned drive chain is enclosed in an oil-tight case and Can-Am says it makes no noise at all.
Both models include a 10.25-inch touchscreen for displaying configurable gauges, with Apple CarPlay for connectivity to an iPhone. The Pulse city bike has four electronic riding modes and 140 millimetres of fork travel, while the Origin adventure bike has two more off-road modes and 255 millimetres of fork travel with a full KYB suspension. Both offer a “73″ upgrade with LED lighting, windscreens and special paint. The 73 name is in reference to 1973, the year Can-Am sold its first bikes.
The display and windscreen on the Origin.PP/Courtesy of manufacturer
“The intent is not to replace a touring motorcycle with an electric motorcycle – it’s to create a new experience,” says Boisjoli. “The challenge in electrifying a product is to find the balance. A bigger battery will give you more range, but it’s heavier and it’s more difficult to pack. And it’s more costly. Our role is to find the sweet spot, where you have good value for the consumer.”
The bikes are not cheap, however. They range from $18,300 to $21,700, which is about twice the price of a similarly sized gas-powered motorcycle. (Electric motorcycles currently qualify for a price rebate in British Columbia, Quebec and the Yukon, though the amounts vary considerably.)
Boisjoli says this is more than Can-Am expected to charge when it began developing the 47-horsepower Rotax e-motors several years ago, but the price of components has increased since then. Back then, BRP committed to offer an electric vehicle in all its product lines by the end of 2026, but it’s since delayed that commitment, with no new public deadline. Boisjoli would not say when an electric three-wheeled Spyder or Ryker will be produced, though they’re in the plans.
The Can-Am Origin adventure bike, which will have a range of up to 145 kilometres.Courtesy of manufacturer
“The costs of all the components increased significantly in the time of COVID, and all the car [manufacturers] have increased their prices,” says Boisjoli. “Many governments are reducing subsidies [for EV development and production], but I think it is a temporary thing. There will be a rebalance of the costs and the price.”
Research and development of battery technology is costly and many automobile manufacturers have created partnerships to reduce overall costs. Boisjoli says BRP considered this but eventually dismissed the idea: “At the end of the day, there are good companies out there but everyone is taking a margin, and the prices are going up significantly. We purchase the battery cells from an outside company, but we do everything else ourselves and we believe we are more cost-competitive than everybody else.”
Like other makers of electric motorcycles, like Zero and Livewire, Can-Am is not targeting traditional motorcyclists but a whole new market of potential enthusiasts.
“This is not a new strategy – it’s a technology evolution,” says Boisjoli. “Our product off-road is not ideal because you cannot recharge in the middle of nowhere, but this is a trend we cannot ignore. Our aim is to offer vehicles with combustion engines that will continue to evolve, getting cleaner and getting more efficient, and in parallel, we will offer a line of electric products for the customer who is ready for that experience.
“The motorcycle is ideal. It forces us to do a very compact design, it has very little drag because it has [only] two wheels, and you can use all the [charging] infrastructure that’s installed worldwide for the cars. This is a big plus.”