What Is Bombardier Planning With New Electric Vehicle Patent?

The research department at AutoGuide.com has discovered a recent patent filed by Bombardier Recreational Products indicating the popular powersports company could be looking to develop electric cars.

The patent focuses on a door design for a vehicle built on a skateboard chassis. The primary concept unique to Bombardier involves a door that opens sufficiently wide to allow passengers to access the rear seats without having to move the front seats. This door is connected to a linkage that enables it to swing out and forward. This would reduce the number of moving parts.

The patent illustrations depict two different body shapes: a car and a small SUV, but the document claims the concept could be expressed as an entire vehicle lineup including hatchback, sedan, SUV, MPV, compact city car, coupe, compact, and subcompact. BRP also states the concept supports front, rear, or all-wheel drive configurations

Because there are no mechanisms required for folding or sliding the front seats the anchoring of the front seats can be more simplified. In BRP's vision, the seats would actually be up off the vehicle floor, allowing for additional storage space below each of the front seats. The storage space further extends continuously rearward from below the

front seats and under the rear seats. It's unclear how this type of cabin solution would fare in crash testing.

Details about the electric vehicle system itself are minimal, with only a general description of the skateboard chassis provided but BRP has been making significant strides toward electrifying its entire product lineup. The company has committed to introducing electric versions of every product by 2026–this includes the development of electric snowmobiles, motorcycles, jet skis, and off-road vehicles like ATVs, UTVs, and Side-by-Sides.

BRP has already launched electric snowmobiles under its Ski-Doo and Lynx brands and introduced the Can-Am electric motorcycle lineup for 2024 using Rotax E-POWER technology. Much of BRP's development work on electric vehicles is centered in their Electric Vehicle Development Centre in Valcourt, Quebec, and a sister site in Gunskirchen, Austria.

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