Through manufacturing challenges and order delays, creditor protection and restructuring, Sam Bruneau says Taiga Motors’ original thesis — that snowmobile and jet-ski riders want an electric alternative, and that Canada is the best place to build them — hasn’t wavered.
“The product types, the vertical integration, doing it all under one roof and doing it in Canada,” he says. “That has remained the same as our original business plan in 2015.”
That year Bruneau teamed up with Paul Achard and Gabriel Bernatchez — engineering classmates and teammates in extracurricular electric race car design competition McGill Formula Electric — to make that dream a reality.
After designing a prototype electric snowmobile from their shared apartment in Montreal and hauling it around North America in a rented pickup, the co-founders found a market eager for a quieter, safer, more sustainable alternative.
In 2021 Taiga went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that put its value at more than half a billion dollars. In 2022, it began manufacturing electric snowmobiles and jet skis from its Montreal facility, and by 2023 the company employed about 300 workers.
But shortly after going public Bruneau says Taiga began running into rough patches. Rising interest rates, supply-chain issues and a global chip shortage hobbled the startup as it sought to create and source new parts for a new product category.
By 2024 Taiga Motors had laid off all but 70 staff, suspended production and filed for creditor protection, burdening its earliest and most passionate supporters — including employees, investors and deposit-paying customers — with financial losses.
“It’s a terrible feeling to disappoint so many who were rallying behind Taiga,” Bruneau says. “The core thesis was working, we were getting there — just a year or a year and a half behind schedule — and that has a huge impact on the financials of companies in the public markets.”
In October 2024 Taiga Motors was thrown a buoy by British electric boat entrepreneur and investor Stewart Wilkinson. Now, Taiga is attempting a comeback, announcing its latest jet-ski model — the three-seater Orca WX3 — at the Monaco Yacht Club in early September, alongside its entry into the European watercraft market.
The Star caught up with Bruneau, who remains Taiga’s CEO and public face, from its Montreal headquarters to understand what went wrong, why he’s so certain the future of leisure crafts is electric, and why the company deserves a second chance.
Did you ride snowmobiles growing up?
We didn’t own a snowmobile, but I did some touring with friends and family.
Growing up in Quebec you tend to spend a lot of time in the snow. I did a lot of skiing as a kid, and through that you see a lot of the friction between outdoor communities.
How so?
We all have the same goal — to enjoy these beautiful outdoor spaces — but the machines are loud, and quite polluting. It’s similar with jet skis in the summer; people want to enjoy the water, and unfortunately the gas ones are extremely loud and can be used in dangerous ways.
Did you pursue a degree in engineering to address that tension?
I never really pictured entrepreneurship. I got into engineering because of a passion for sustainable energy. I wanted to do something to protect the environment, but I assumed I would be doing research into fusion energy or something.
How did Taiga come about?
When I started at McGill in 2010 Tesla was just starting to take off and major manufacturers were starting to invest in electric cars, but nobody was working on this space that felt very close to home.
My co-founders and I are all from different parts of Quebec, but all had the same passion for the outdoors and technology. We realized we could do what Tesla did; start with a clean sheet and reinvent the snowmobile as an electric vehicle.
If someone else was already working on it, we probably wouldn’t have done it, but we saw this big problem and knew people wanted a solution.
Is it really that big of a problem for the environment?
Because they are used on a smaller scale governments impose less stringent regulations.
Cars are required to have catalytic converters, which remove a lot of the nasty byproducts of combustion engines, but snowmobiles and jet skis don’t. Their four-stroke engines pollute as much as 40 cars on a per-kilometre basis.
For jet skis, those particulates and hydrocarbons go straight into the waterways. There might be less of them, but each has a much bigger and more direct environmental impact.
What are the benefits?
The silent operation is a game-changer for riders and everyone around them. They run about 30 times quieter than gas alternatives at full throttle. That allows you to really enjoy nature; all you hear is wind and water or snow. It feels more like sailing or skiing, and you can enjoy the fresh air without the exhaust smell.
Electric engines offer instant torque, so faster acceleration. It’s also a lot safer, especially for rental providers and tour operators, because you can set specific speed limits, and track where they go.
In 2026 we’re introducing geofencing, which allows for the ability to restrict access or speed in specific areas using GPS. For a family, that means you can control where your teen can ride, and how fast.
In Toronto there’s been a lot of concern over jet skis disrupting local wildlife or getting too close to busy shorelines, so limiting jet skis to certain speeds or areas could be game-changing.
We’re already having discussions with customers about opening restricted waterways to electric vehicles in areas that currently ban personal watercrafts.
What about the downsides?
There are two main ones for all EVs; the upfront cost is about 20 to 30 per cent higher, and there is less range.
On the price side, it becomes cost efficient over time. Not only are you not paying for gas, but ownership costs are lower. There are no oil changes, or coolant, or winterization requirements. For fleet owners, you can save upwards of $7,000 across the lifetime of the vehicle, because it’s used every day. For individuals, the total cost of ownership is $3,000 to $4,000 less.
As for range, our watercrafts get about two hours on a full charge. Unlike a car most riders aren’t worried about the occasional road trip. Long-distance riders are about 10 per cent of the jet-ski market and 20 to 30 per cent on the snowmobile side. The snowmobiles get about 100 kilometres of range, and with fast chargers becoming more available it’s becoming easier to stop for a quick coffee and charge.
What challenges did the company run into following its 2021 SPAC?
We had just set up production, had a big order book, lots of optimism about the product, getting those first parts from suppliers, and things were looking good.
Then we started having problems, starting with the supply-chain crisis. Automakers stopped production because they couldn’t access microchips, and we started getting calls from suppliers saying those companies were taking our shipment because they buy $5 billion, and we were ordering $1 million.
We’re also creating these complex parts for the first time and there’s a high bar for safety and reliability — everything needs to be tested and validated — and it’s hard to pivot. If the market changes, or supply chains collapse, it has a long-lasting impact.
The team did everything possible to keep production on track but there were delays, and customers got frustrated, so investors got frustrated. As a public company that created challenging market dynamics.
Which proved more challenging, the technology or the market?
On paper the technology is a lot more complicated — there’s a lot of new IP — but on an emotional level, the market. Technology is math, which is predictable; the market is human, which isn’t.
What happens now that you’ve been acquired?
We just launched a new model in Monaco — a more versatile, larger personal watercraft — and we’re still executing that same road map. The core plan hasn’t changed.
We’re currently at 80 employees, and we’re hoping to scale to 150 by the end of next year. We’re a private company once again, just focused on execution. So far, we’ve sold about 1,500 vehicles — about half snow half watercraft — and we’re aiming for about 200 a month through next year.
We’re seeing tremendous interest from the European market, which is further ahead on electric adoption, but everything will be designed and built here in Canada. We’re also working with a group of companies to leverage our technology in the wider boating space and enable more manufactures to go electric.
What about your initial backers?
The early-stage venture investors understood the risks and while they were disappointed, they remain supportive. Many of them were impact investors, and they’re happy we’re able to continue.
Many of our customers were relieved too, because they want this in the market. Even though deposits have technically been wiped in the restructuring, we’re going to honour those as best we can.
Taiga has seen extreme highs and lows. Are you now in the middle?
We’re trying to find a road with fewer wild swings. A restructuring is the worst thing you can experience in business, and we’re taking a more cautious approach so we can survive another 10 years.
The reality is that changing an industry takes time, it’s about perseverance and sustainable growth, but we still need to push more aggressively than an established company. We’re trying to do something that no one else is doing, so it’s going to be uncomfortable at times.
