Clean Snowmobile Facts
- CONCERNS
- National Parks
- Air Quality
- Water Quality
- Personal Exposure
- Other Concerns
- SOLUTIONS
- Engine Technologies
- Two-Stroke Engine Principles
- Two-Stroke Engine
Modifications - Four-Stroke Engines
- Electric Snowmobiles
- Fuels & Lubricants
- Oxygenated Fuels
- Biodegradable Lubes
- Low PM Lubes
- Clean Snowmobile Challenge
- What You Can Do
- REGULATIONS
- MONTANA ISSUES
Solutions - Electric Snowmobiles
Overview
Electric vehicles have penetrated niche markets, and other opportunities are on the horizon that will stimulate development of the technology and cut costs. Electric vehicles have shares of markets for milk delivery trucks in the United Kingdom, for example, for school buses in the United States, and for garbage trucks in France. All of these applications can use vehicles that operate over short distances.
Selected Links
Electric vehicles also offer the advantage of lower noise levels. For snowmobiles, the engine noise would be decreased but other noises, such as track noise, would remain about the same. Please see discussions of noise reduction in the University's of Idaho Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2001 Entry.
- Trends In Electric End-Use Technologies
- Electric Vehicles: An Industry Prospectus Essential reading to track a new industry focusing on the Markets, the Technologies, and the Strategies the First of Its Kind
Planet Electric
Planet Electric, based in North Hills, Calif., has developed high-performance power systems and products for a wide variety of applications and markets. Scott Montana, president of Planet Electric, says the company plans to introduce an electric snowmobile and bass boat.
Snowlectric (e-mail address)
Snowlectric of Midway, Utah, has been working with the National Parks Service (Yellowstone National Park) since January 2000, exploring the possibilities of an electric snow machine. The Park Service supplied Snowlectric with a Polaris Indy 500 snowmobile chassis, which was successfully converted to a fully electric-powered snowmobile. Snowlectric supplied all of operating components and labor. Snowlectric's report (12k pdf file) issued in August 2001summarizes prototype testing and drive analysis.
