#Brammo

Polaris Industries Inc. has announced the acquisition of Goupil Industrie SA, a privately owned, Bourran, France-based manufacturer of on-road, commercial electric vehicles. The move will add Goupil vehicles to Polaris’ growing small electric vehicle product portfolio.

Goupil, which reported approximately $25 million in sales during calendar year 2010, will continue operating in Bourran with its current staff.

“As Polaris continues to deliver outstanding performance and gain market share in our core business, we are excited to acquire Goupil and add to our growing small electric vehicle lineup. We are eager to pursue the natural synergies between their commercial light duty work products and the more people-mover oriented offerings from our GEM business,” says Scott Wine, Polaris chief executive officer. “We see tremendous, long term growth in the global small electric vehicle market, and Goupil, with its established product line, history of profitable growth, and segment-leading European presence, will be an integral part of our strategy to realize that potential.”

“We are excited to advance our electric vehicle capability by establishing Polaris as a business partner and part owner of Brammo, one of the most innovative and aggressive companies we have found in the electric motorcycle space,” says Scott Wine, Polaris CEO. “Our companies share a passion for performance, and we look forward to exploiting the numerous opportunities created by pairing Brammo’s industry-leading electric powertrain technology with Polaris’ vast array of market-leading powersports products. This is a small, but important, investment for Polaris in an electric vehicle market that we feel is poised for significant growth.”

Polaris is hardly new to electric vehicles. The Minnesota-based manufacturer currently produces the Ranger EV off-road vehicle and the Gem and Breeze neighborhood vehicles.