For many years, the term "American iron," when referring to motorcycles, meant only one thing: Harley-Davidson. Sure, there were other, small niche players but Harley was really where it was at.
That changed in 1998 when Polaris Industries, known primarily for snowmobiles and jet skis, launched its own line of motorcycles, dubbed Victory. In the years since then the Victory brand has grown and prospered while Harley peaked and then narrowly avoided flaming out.
In the last two weeks, Polaris has shown its strength and, through acquisitions, has made bold statements about where it sees its future. On April 19 the company announced it was acquiring Indian Motorcycle and a week later said it will also acquire an electric-powered vehicle (EV) maker, Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), from Chrysler. The financial strength to make these initiatives successful was demonstrated on April 20 by Polaris's release of its first quarter financial results which showed the company with net income that quarter of $47.3 million, compared to $19.8 million the year before.
That Indian could not make it on its own was perhaps a forgone conclusion. After several failed revivals, the iconic American brand relaunched once again in 2006 with a line of luxury-priced cruisers--just in time for the economy to drop into the worst recession in a lifetime. What was not at all predictable was that Polaris would decide to step in and throw its financial heft into the effort to keep this latest incarnation alive.
In the meantime, the purchase of GEM demonstrates that Polaris is looking to the future as well as to the vintage past. GEM makes electric four-wheel passenger vehicles that bear some similarity to the Smart car, as well as pick-up style utility models. Whether Polaris intends to meld the EV technology that GEM brings to the fold with its growing motorcycle fleet remains to be seen, but with the recent proliferation of electric motorcycles it would not be surprising. A recent report from Pike Research said that by 2017 there are expected to be 138 million electric motorcycles and scooters in use worldwide, compared to just 17 million today.
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