The humble snowmobile, a staple of winter travel in northern latitudes, is finally going electric.
Photographer: Chet Strange/Bloomberg
Snowmobiles Finally Get the Tesla Treatment
Electric snowmobiles are quieter, less carbon-intensive and increasingly cost-competitive. Just be careful around fresh powder.
Imagine you are a moose, chomping away on some twigs without a hint of concern in your beautiful, tennis-ball-sized brain. If a 700-pound machine zooms up behind you, roaring like a vacuum cleaner with a chainsaw attached, you might be inclined to stop what you’re doing and try to stomp it into smithereens.
At least, that was the reaction Cory Burrows got when he encountered a moose while snowmobiling in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. “I basically did a backflip off the machine and started sprinting,” Burrows, a guide for tour operator Grand Adventures, told me. “I ended up crouched behind a tree just watching the moose on the trail above me. He was fuming.”