Finnish Company Brings eSled Electric Snowmobile to Market
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September 27th, 2019
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Finnish Company Brings eSled Electric Snowmobile to Market

Finnish manufacturer, Aurora Powertrains, has brought an electric snowmobile called eSled to market.

Established in 2017 in Rovaniemi, in Finland’s northern Lapland region, Aurora Powertrains first began building electric snowmobiles to outfit the fleet of its own snowmobile tour business, Aurora eMotion. The company felt that a quiet, clean and sustainable vehicle was necessary for the maximum enjoyment of its guests and the future of the company. During this time, the size of the eSled fleet grew to 25 snowmobiles.

eSled electric snowmobile and reindeer

The quiet of the eSled allows Aurora Emotion snowmobile tour clients to feel more in tune with nature and the wilderness.

The use of its own electrification technology allowed the company to test and fine-tune the product with the feedback of thousands of users. The success of the product encouraged Aurora Powertrains to start manufacturing and marketing the electric snowmobile to other snowmobile tour operations elsewhere.

In the future, Aurora Powertrains plans to market its eSled to the public as well.

Aurora Powertrains eSled Built on BRP Chassis

Astute snowmobilers will notice at a glance that the eSled is built on what appears to be a BRP Ski-Doo or Lynx chassis. In fact, the chassis is supplied, readymade, by BRP Finland.

eSled electric snowmobile

Our strict focus is on the development of the Electric Powertrain; we are not interested in redesigning the chassis. Snowmobile engineers have been fine-tuning snowmobile chassis for decades and we use one of the best commercially available snowmobile safari [tour] chassis.
– Ari Karjalainen, Aurora Powertrains CEO

eSled Models - Touring and Utility

Aurora Powertrains lists two models—Touring and Utility eSleds—at the time of publication. Each offer a 9.5 kWh capacity, with a range of 40 km. Top speed of the Touring model is 104 km/h, while the Utility model will travel at 98 km/h. A third model that will offer a greater range, called Touring Long Range, is currently in development.

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The eSled Utility model offers 50% more torque (240 Nm) than the Touring model, making it capable of towing heavy loads.
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While the limited range and top speed of the eSleds may not appeal much to performance powersports users yet, the units certainly have great potential for use as fleet vehicles for snowmobile tour operations.

In fact, Aurora Powertrains has recently entered into an agreement to supply a Norwegian exploration travel company, Hurtigruten Svalbard, with delivery of eight eSleds for tour operations in Svalbard commencing this winter. This deal signifies the start of a new era of emissions-free snowmobiling and sustainable snowmobile tourism.

 

– MS

eSled
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