BRP, the parent company of Can-Am and the genre defining creators of the Spyder, has revealed the first two electric models that will be available from the company in mid-2024. Details are so far slim beyond the development of a new electric Rotax engine and that the bikes will have built-in fast chargers. The company states that that a full breakdown of the bikes’ on-road specs will be available in 2023 to coincide with BRP’s 50th anniversary.
What do we know so far? Pretty much what you can see from the pictures.
Both machine feature crisp modern styling that foregoes the “Hey! I’m electric!” over-styling that, with the exception of the Sondor Metacycle and only a few other bikes, often fails to wow potential purchasers. The Can-Am future offerings look like motorcycles – which we have learned through several misguided efforts is a good thing.
We also know what the bikes will be called. The ADV inspired bike is the “Origin” and the shorter street standard is the “Pulse”.
It is understandable that the first bike is a dual sport as the last motorcycles from Can-Am to find success many years ago were in the same category. As we noted earlier, BRP brought what was essentially a brand new category of machines the market and found solid and continuing success. That is quite remarkable considering the company had to create a demand – which they did by tapping into the only slightly served market for a stable three wheeled platform. Who knew an tree-wheeled machine that looked more than vaguely like a snowmobile was going to be such a hit.
It is this history of making innovations work – along with the myriad of other wheeled vehicles that BRP also produce – that makes us believe that Can-AM can make this electric thing work. There is nothing more common today than and electric bike that is in what seems to be eternal development. In that regard BRP gave themselves generous lead time to get the bike finished. If we had to make a prediction, we would say BRP will hit the mark pretty close to that mid-2024 date.
So now we wait.