Mathilde Carlier
Research Expert covering transportation and logistics
Bombardier Recreational Products - Statistics & Facts
Transportation is going electric, even for snowmobiles. BRP Inc., parent-company of Bombardier Recreational Products, announced in 2024 that it now offered four electric snowmobiles, with plans to add at least one fully electric model in all its power sports lines by 2026. The company recorded a strong financial performance during their 2023 fiscal year, with net incomes reaching over 865 million Canadian dollars after soaring in 2022. The company attributed this 2022 financial milestone to an increased consumer interest in powersports. Its success extended through its 2023 fiscal year despite grappling with a cybersecurity incident forcing production halts in the summer and ongoing supply chain shortages. Business interruptions and cyber incidents were the two leading risks to large and mid-size companies worldwide, as highlighted by risk management experts in a 2023 survey.
Research and development expenses are boosted by BRP’s financial success
Bombardier Recreational Products is a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain-vehicles, and motorcycles headquartered in Valcourt, Quebec. The company was founded as L’Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée by Joseph-Armand Bombardier in 1942 and emerged as Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) in 2003. The company’s major segments include year-round products, consisting of roadsters, side-by-side vehicles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and seasonal products, consisting of personal watercraft and snowmobiles. This wide range of products enables BRP to remain competitive across various segments, though its year-round products represented nearly half of the company’s 2023 revenue, compared to over a third for seasonal products. Partly to maintain its competitiveness in such diverse markets, Bombardier Recreational Products has been growing its research and development expenses, surpassing the 350 million Canadian dollars in investments during their 2023 fiscal year. Most of these investments were intended to reinforce BRP’s electric vehicle capabilities, including through the acquisition of Great Wall Motor Austria GmbH and of the Canadian powersport operations of Kongsberg Inc., as well as through the ownership of an 80 percent share in Pinion GmbH.BRP’s main markets are also the largest snowmobile markets worldwide
BRP’s trademarks include Lynx, Can-Am, Sea-Doo and Ski-Doo. Ski-Doo’s share of the global snowmobile market was forecast to reach 47 percent by 2017. By 2023, Ski-Doo’s popularity in North America, BRP’s main regional market, was well demonstrated. Worldwide, a little under 124,800 snowmobiles were sold in the winter of 2017/18. Although driving a snowmobile is not among the key sports activities in most parts of the world, it is gaining in popularity in Canada. Canada is among the three largest snowmobile markets globally; some 48,300 snowmobiles went to customers in Canada in the winter of 2022/23, which represented 38.7 of the global snowmobile market.
