VIDDE JOINS TAIGA AND SKI-DOO WITH FORTHCOMING ELECTRIC SNOWMOBILE

Another electric snowmobile appears to be entering the market in the near future. News of the startup Vidde Snow Mobility manufacturer based in Sweden has plans to deliver its first 1,000 electric snowmobiles in late 2024 came across our desk in a Bloomberg article. According to the article, Vidde has orders from the country’s resort operator Skistar, electricity producer Skelleftea Kraft, and the Icehotel in Jukkasjarvi.

The Bloomberg arcticle goes on to say the company’s prototype named “Frank” — after Frankenstein’s monster — is set for a design makeover by Pininfarina SpA, an Italian design house known for luxury cars.

Vidde joins a growing list of clean-energy innovators setting up shop in Sweden’s subarctic, taking advantage of the bountiful supply of renewable energy and steady flow of venture capital.

The area, dubbed “Sustainability Valley” by consulting firm McKinsey, already plays home to startups including X Shore, Candela, Heart Aerospace, Cake, and dozens of others making electric boats, ferries, planes, trucks, and motorcycles.

Roughly 135,000 internal combustion powered snowmobiles are sold worldwide each year, according to RISE, a research centre partnering with Vidde. Within that industry, Canadian recreational-vehicle manufacturer Taiga Motors is the only company so far to have delivered series-produced electric snowmobiles to end user customers, according to Vidde chief executive officer Christian Lystrup.

In April 2022, Skistar announced it was testing two Taiga snowmobiles, “Compared to a traditional scooter, we are lowering the carbon footprint to a seventh,” Lystrup said in an interview. The vehicle will be easy to upgrade and “built to last.”

Manufacturing will take place in Jorn, not far from Skelleftea where battery maker Nortvholt AB has built its first plant. Northvolt’s decision to manufacture in the region has been a “big inspiration” for Vidde, Lystrup said.

The eventual look of “Frank” will be sleek and efficient, using the “minimum required” materials, said Xavier Blanc Baudriller, a design executive for Pininfarina. The process is “quite far away from designing a Ferrari.”

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