When Indian Goes Electric, We All Win

There’s no question that the internal combustion engine dominates the world of motorcycling, but electric motorcycles have seen their market share grow steadily over the past few years. Successful companies like Zero Motorcycles and Lightning Motorcycles have been creating everything from electric dirt bikes to legit Isle of Man TT racers with great results.

Now, it appears that Polaris will be getting in on the action with recent news that the company is launching an all-electric Indian motorcycle within the next five or so years. That puts it roughly on the same timeline as the hotly anticipated LiveWire electric bike from rival Harley-Davidson.

"The characteristics of the powertrain are going to be more applicable to be able to ride a bike in pleasure and twisties, and kind of how you would use pleasure bikes today," said Steve Menneto, President of Motorcycles at Polaris in an interview with Reuters.

When Polaris pulled the plug on Victory Motorcycles, it was mentioned that the infrastructure and technology developed by that brand would be put to good use and Polaris seems to be fulfilling that promise with this latest news. Victory produced the limited but successful Empulse TT street bike, and also fielded two successful racing versions of the Empulse at the Pikes Peak International Hill climb which it took a class victory at in 2016.

Details for the new electrified Indian are virtually non-existent at this point, but word is that Indian is shooting for significantly improved range and performance targets over the now defunct Empulse. It’s also said that the company is planning on launching an entire lineup of electric motorcycles and will likely draw heavily on Victory’s past experiences to do so.

This is fantastic news on several fronts. First, the fact that Polaris is jumping into the electric motorcycle game clearly means this niche segment is a viable one. For years, smaller companies have had to blaze their own trail through this uncharted territory. Now that two behemoths like Harley-Davidson and Polaris are wading into the fray, the entire electric motorcycle industry is about to get a major shot in the arm.

Second, we’re likely to see some incredible advances in electric propulsion and battery technology in the near future. More interest from big players means more investment, which means more research and development, which usually leads to ground breaking change.

From one perspective, the trajectory of electric motorcycles is similar to that of the growing electric car industry. That market has seen its share of unique and interesting products that ultimately failed to gain any serious traction. Now, however, the viability and desirability of electric cars has positively exploded in recent years due in large part to the vision and persistence of Tesla Motors. The news that Polaris and others are committed enough to (hopefully) start launching electric motorcycles of their own seems to suggest that this market is headed in one direction – up.

Is anyone else absolutely stoked for the future “Made-in-America” electric motorcycle wars between two of its greatest icons, because we certainly are.