a gas can or drive it to town and fill it up with gas . And when the season ends , he doesn ’ t have to worry about bringing it into the shop . It ’ s so simple .”

Peterson foresees multiple demographics showing interest in Taiga products . “ The younger generation is going to love this zero to 60 in three seconds . That ’ s incredible ,” he continues . “ It ’ s just something totally new . There ’ s a new group of customers that are attracted to the dealership .”

He shares that there is a segment of potential buyers who own electric cars and are now interested in electric powersports offerings . “ I think we ’ re going to see a whole new group of customers that haven ’ t been going to a powersports dealership ,” he says .

BATTERY LIFE OF THE ORCA AND NOMAD

Peterson has been asked about the Orca ’ s two-hour battery life . His response is , “ How many hours do most people go out to ride at a time ? It ’ s about 30 minutes ,” he says . Responding to someone questioning the PWC ’ s battery life , he asks how many hours were on his personal watercraft . “ The guy said 18 [ hours ] and the unit was two years old . That ’ s nine hours a year . So , two hours in a day is more than enough for many riders ,” he shares .

Grégoire discusses the battery life issue . “ For the typical customer , the problem is the range of the battery ,” she says referring to the Taiga Nomad . “ But most Taiga customers are people who are doing work on their land , so you don ’ t need to have as much range . For the trail system , a snowmobiler likes to ride a lot of kilometers in a ride . So we ’ re not there yet , but it ’ s a work in progress ,” she says .

MAINTAINING DEALER SUPPORT AND RAMPING UP PRODUCTION

Bruneau shares that the company ’ s team is continuing to grow so it can maintain its responsiveness to dealers . The company provides dealer support through its regional managers , who serve as touchpoints with dealers , and by offering service teams dedicated to training dealers and helping service units .

“ I think we have 31 locations now across North America ,” he says . “ As we keep expanding that , we ’ re expanding our internal team as well to offer the same level of support to our dealers in the different regions .”

The company has also increased Nomad and Orca production . The company ’ s production rate is just over 50 units a week , according to Bruneau . “ That was a big step forward for us ,” he says . “ And for 2023 , the total volume between snow and watercraft , we ’ re aiming at just above 1000 vehicles . We really just ramped up in the second half of 2023 , so we ’ re really seeing the benefits from that . We ’ re going to carry forward with much higher numbers in 2024 .”

Taiga recently entered into a loan agreement with Export Development Canada ( EDC ) to support the company ’ s continued growth . “ This loan really helps us on the working capital side ,” Bruneau says . “ I think this goes in with our direct model . It ’ s a bit

more intensive on requirements for Taiga as an OEM at the beginning because we ’ re holding some of those initial inventories and buffering it with sales with the dealers instead of just pushing out inventory onto dealers and getting them to buy upfront .

“ I think that ’ s really appreciated by our dealer groups because they ’ re carrying some pretty significant inventories of other products , especially at the moment ,” he continues . “ So , now we ’ re working directly with different banks to provide those financing

Taiga was launched after its co-founders recognized an opportunity to develop snowmobiles , watercraft , and off-road vehicles that could provide the range and performance that customers want at a price point and lifecycle cost that would be lower than gas .

tools and that ’ s allowing us to keep increasing production .”

Taiga recently reached a production milestone of 1,000 vehicles for 2023 , and Bruneau explains that the company will be in rapid scaling mode over the next 12 months . “ We ’ re excited to continue to expand over different regions in Canada and the U . S . and work with new dealers ,” he says . And he shares that side-by-sides are also an attractive segment to the company . “ The next step for us is working on an electric side-by-side . We have some stuff in the works . We haven ’ t unveiled the exact timeline on it yet , but that will be the next product lineup for Taiga .”