Polaris electric ATV

[MMagis]

A pretty wimpy review. I have a Polaris 800 EFI Sportsman and it is a beast. It will pull 1,200# like a sack of potatoes.

Your 800 has a rated towing capacity of 1500 lbs, so not a big difference. One thing not lacking with electric is torque. I used mine a couple weeks ago to cultipack a hilly field with 9' McCormick tandem cultipacker, and I've used it on many occasions to pull large oak logs up out of the woods. Mine does have some problems with the front tires losing traction, but I don't have independent suspension or posi-traction like is available these days. Again, not for everyone, but most of the assumptions are wrong.

 

[radman1]

First thing it is not an ATV it is a UTV or SxS. I think it would be perfect for some uses.
Polaris is out there sometimes you gotta hand them that. I remember when they tried the diesel ATV.
A local woman won one in a contest and it promptly appeared in the local trader paper.
It was funny, about every few months it would show back up as whoever bought it last put it back up for sale

My bad on the ATV vs UTV mix up. I know the difference, but typing fingers and mind don't always agree.

 

[prosumequipment]

Seems that Cushman would have the golf course/factory/Dr. Evil secret lair market well served, so I don't know that is what Polaris is after. I'll bet they're already on it, but maybe what they should have is a hybrid Ranger to get the silence of electric with the range of gas power. Perhaps the electric is a stepping stone toward that

 

[bigdeer2000]

I think they are after the badboy's market. I was interested in an electric hunting utv but the dealers i found selling the badboy didn't really have a service dept. and as we all know all vehicles will eventually need some work done on them. polaris's network of full service dealerships should give them a huge advantage. the badboy i priced was over 12,000 dollars

 

[MMagis]

the badboy i priced was over 12,000 dollars

Wow, that's a lot more than around here. I bought mine a year and a half ago for about $9600 after taxes. I think the new ones are around $10,700. Still too much but over $12k seems way out of line.

 

[spencer6752]

I bought one of these about three weeks ago. There is a big issue with the battery charger. I used it during the day and plugged it in at night. I started noticing that that batteries were not fully charged in the morning. Now this is after 8 hours or more of charging. I got my dealer involved and he got Polaris involved. Polaris indicated that when the charger does not have a cool ambient enviroment it gets hot and goes to a "trickle charge" mode. This is why the batteries were not fully charging overnight. Polaris said that if you are in a warm or hot enviroment, there may not be enough "cool ambient" air to keep the charger cool. They recommend placing a portable electric fan in front of the charger to keep it cool. This is just "plum stupid". You cannot tell me that Polaris did not nor does not know about this issue. I called my dealer and told him if they couldn't get Polaris to fix this issue, he could take it back. Well, they took it back. I replaced it with a new Polaris gas burner which is what I shoul.d have gotten in the first place. So much for trying to be green.

 

[Monster5601]

I bought one of these about three weeks ago. There is a big issue with the battery charger. I used it during the day and plugged it in at night. I started noticing that that batteries were not fully charged in the morning. Now this is after 8 hours or more of charging. I got my dealer involved and he got Polaris involved. Polaris indicated that when the charger does not have a cool ambient enviroment it gets hot and goes to a "trickle charge" mode. This is why the batteries were not fully charging overnight. Polaris said that if you are in a warm or hot enviroment, there may not be enough "cool ambient" air to keep the charger cool. They recommend placing a portable electric fan in front of the charger to keep it cool. This is just "plum stupid". You cannot tell me that Polaris did not nor does not know about this issue. I called my dealer and told him if they couldn't get Polaris to fix this issue, he could take it back. Well, they took it back. I replaced it with a new Polaris gas burner which is what I shoul.d have gotten in the first place. So much for trying to be green.

Green isn't what it appears on the face. People forget the amount of energy that is consumed to mine, process, transport, and process the metals to make a battery. Most of all lithium is mined of seas and transported here.

Then you have to constantly change the batteries, well, it take energy to make electricity.

Then there is the disposal issues of spend batteries.

I think the amount of fuel the ATV will consume is less than the the fuel used to make it green.

I think Polaris took the cheap route by not providing a good charger.

 

[kf4uda]

I went to buy one of the electrics last March. I drove one and really liked how quiet it was and it seemed to have a fair amount of power. I also drove the 500 gas model which is the same frame size as the electric. I didn't really care for it as it had a single cylinder engine. I made the mistake of driving the 800xp and that was the end of my decision. I knew it was the machine for me. It has served me well so far on the farm. I do think the electric model would have been a great machine for hunting since it ran practically silent but for farm use I have the machine that I need.