Taiga Electric Snowmobile Launch

[DMC-Orangeville]

I had the pleasure to attend the Taiga electric snowmobile launch, in Montreal, Monday March 2. I got a chance to take a test drive on this bad boy:

Production will begin in Montreal this summer. Delivery of the vehicles to the initial deposit holders, is due prior to winter 2020 (unless "Elon time" applies to Taiga, too).
There are 3 models; mountain, crossover, and touring/utility. Range: 100-138 KM, 21 and 28 KWH battery - with some really interesting battery thermal management, allowing for use down to -40 C/F. Lots of other goodies (App, GPS trail tracking, etc)

Oh, and 0-100KPH (60ish MPH) in 2.9 seconds - with no backrest - oh my........yes it's really fast.

I am a reservation holder, and I can't wait.
Check them out: Taiga Snowmobiles – Taiga Motors

 

[swaltner]

“just unplug and play” - cute

Looks like a lot of fun.

 

[ICUDoc]

Wow!
Scary stuff!

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

The Globe and Mail (Canada's New York Times) wrote a nice piece on this.....
Dashing through the snow on the Tesla of snowmobiles

 

[CanadianMetal]

Do they have Chill mode ?

 

[Cal1]

Do they have Chill mode ?

Well played CanadianMetal, well played!

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Just out: Taiga to go Public via SPAC.
Montreal jet-ski maker Taiga to go public via Canaccord SPAC - BNN Bloomberg

 

[leonar40]

Price? Could not find any details on their website.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

CANACCORD GENUITY GROWTH II CORP: CGGZ.UN trading on the TSX NEO. Traded today at $3.81 $CDN, up $.31

 

[leonar40]

CANACCORD GENUITY GROWTH II CORP: CGGZ.UN trading on the TSX NEO. Traded today at $3.81 $CDN, up $.31

LOL, no, price of the snowmobile.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

LOL, no, price of the snowmobile.

My bad
They said that they will start at $15,000 ($US) - It's in the FAQ
They are just now supplying a bunch of ski resorts (Mt. Tremblant being one), I was supposed to get one this year...but Covid-19 really messed them up. Or, they've discovered Elon time. However, this week they emailed me to confirm my address. I am fairly near the top for getting one: I'm reservation holder number 3

I'm going for the Nomad Performance...and they say there will be Founder's edition models for the first release. Giggety

 

[leonar40]

Damn, that's sweet! I don't really know how much a comparable gas snowmobile is, but given that it's got a pretty big battery pack, that price seems reasonable.

 

[MikeBur]

Pricing depends. A trick sled can set you back over 15k usd.

looks interesting, though will look forward to actual range.

In addition to lack of smell, will also be interesting to understand the noise. Double edged sword, though prefer quieter overall

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Pricing depends. A trick sled can set you back over 15k usd.

looks interesting, though will look forward to actual range.

In addition to lack of smell, will also be interesting to understand the noise. Double edged sword, though prefer quieter overall

The battery for the performance model is rated at 140 KM. We'll see....It's good enough for what I need to do, but for the long trail riders through remote areas.....well, no good until there's some infrastructure.

When I test drove it last March, I noticed that it was quieter than a traditional sled, but the aggressive track on it still made some noise, so people and animals will hear you coming. No smell though.

 

[Daks]

The battery for the performance model is rated at 140 KM. We'll see....It's good enough for what I need to do, but for the long trail riders through remote areas.....well, no good until there's some infrastructure.

When I test drove it last March, I noticed that it was quieter than a traditional sled, but the aggressive track on it still made some noise, so people and animals will hear you coming. No smell though.

I was gonna say, unless you can plug into a tree, it's going to be a no go for most of the Alaska riding trails. Certainly won't be doing any iron dog runs (sadly).

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

I was gonna say, unless you can plug into a tree, it's going to be a no go for most of the Alaska riding trails. Certainly won't be doing any iron dog runs (sadly).

Agreed

I've had a couple of Twitter battles with guys that absolutely crapped on this sled. They were trailing in the Rocky Mountains of AB/BC. Taiga will probably never be able to be used on remote trails. Even after I told them that their domain wasn't the target for Taiga, they still whined. But.....Just north of me (central Ontario) there are thousands of miles of trails. A lot of them are from old railways. Most of them weave around towns, but often parallel or cross roads; some of them main roads. There will be lots of opportunity to add charging near these trails. The same goes for Quebec....and I suspect a lot of the mid-west and north-eastern US.

Remote Alaska, Yukon, NWT......will probably remain ICE sleds. Unless a battery miracle occurs that can triple the range.....

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Taiga has delayed the release until September 2021.
However, they sent me a nice toque! (For my American friends - a nice winter beanie)

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

A nice article about Taiga in The Financial Post (Canada's Wall Street Journal)
Taiga's new deal turns up the throttle on the electric snowmobile dream | Financial Post

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Update!
My Nomad Founder's Edition arrived in May 2023.....no chance to drive it other than on the grass. My VIN is 81 (includes Orca water machines); I got the first one in Ontario.

The photo is arrival day

I took it to a sustainability show in August - it had an error message on the screen. I contacted service....and they fixed it with an over-the-air update.

I took it for a ride today, as we got a couple of inches of "lake effect" snow and temperatures just below freezing.
I turned it on (it goes into standby mode), and the display showed that the battery was warming up. It went from -3C to 20C in about 10 minutes. Some of the heat may have come from the motor, as I drove off after waiting 4-5 minutes. The battery stayed at 20C, and the motor showed 28C as a high point.

There are 3 modes of speed: Range, Sport, and Wild. It's plenty peppy in range mode. Sport was noticeably quicker off the mark, and wild was "hang on to the handlebars" fast. They say 0-60 in 2.9 seconds -okay - I'll buy that. It's a big machine, almost 12 feet and 700 pounds. It was relatively nimble in the corners, and just explodes when you accelerate out of them. The seat is a 2-up, and its really comfortable. There are handle warmers and a helmet warmer on board.

I took it for an 11 KM run, and it used 9% of the range, so the 100-120 KM advertised range seems realistic. I think it's a great sled for short distance trail rides (it should give you 2-3 hours), plus ski resorts, short term rentals, cross country trail maintenance, etc.

Charging: After it cooled down, I put it on a Flo 30 amp J1772 (It does have a CCS1 50KW receptacle). The charge was immediately routed to warm the battery to 20C, which took about 4-5 minutes. The charge pulled 6500 watts from 50% to 85% range, then began to taper. I unplugged it at 91%
-Taiga has said it can be regularly charged to 100%. There must be some room at the top of the battery.
-The vampire loss from May to November was about 30%.

The App was really only a charging update/range % setpoint, and connects to the sled via bluetooth.

Overall, I was very happy with it. I'll post again later in the winter - with winter pictures

 

[swaltner]

That sounds like they’ve got a nice system to help the batteries operate nicely in the cold weather. The Taiga should satisfy many people’s needs and should work out well. Now, to wait for a few years and see the ongoing reliability of the snowmobile.