When Polaris pulled the pin on Victory Motorcycles in January to concentrate on Indian, they suggested they could make electric bikes, but could there also be scramblers?
Now Polaris vice-present of motorcycles Steve Menneto has gone further and confirmed they will produce an electric Indian within five years and also smaller capacity Indian bikes.
He expects this expansion to grow their motorcycle revenue to $1 billion in the next five years from $708.5 million last year.
The five-year plan electric bike plan seems to coincide with when Harley-Davidson plans to produce their electric Livewire for sale.
In 2015, Polaris bought Brammo electric bikes and rebadged them as the Victory Empulse TT. Now it seems they may be rebadged again as Indian.
Victory Empulse TT electric motorcycleHowever, Steve says they will have a much higher range of up to 225km, up from the current range of 120km.
He didn’t mention price, but the Victory Empulse sells in the US from $19,999.
Future products
Previously, Steve suggested “future products and markets will develop, both on-road and off-road”.
“What will change are those efforts will transfer over time to Indian in the two-wheel space and Slingshot in the three-wheel space,” he said.
Now he has confirmed the electric Indian, but there is no word on an electric Slingshot.
He has also now confirmed Indian will produce smaller-capacity bikes.
There was no confirmation of size or type, but he had previously mentioned “off-road”, so we wonder if they may be looking at the growing adventure or scrambler markets.
Now that would be something … an Indian Scout Scrambler that really could scout!