Legit Vermont Farmer Test Drives Word's First Electric Snowmobile, Here's What He Thinks

This is Gold Shaw Farms, Morgan and Allison's prized farm property nestled so far away from any major city, spotting a 7-Eleven within 30 miles of the property is like finding a bountiful harvest in the middle of a biblical desert. But there's plenty of bounties to be on this Peacham, Vermont-based 150+ acre plot of New England amazingness.

It can be snowy in this section of the American Northeast until as late as April in some cases. So you can understand why Taiga Motors, the purported creator of the first-ever mass-produced, all-electric snowmobile wanted so badly to bring their machines out there.

Whether or not this is just marketing hype is a bit up in the air, as people have been converting snowmobiles from petroleum-derived fuels to electric on the aftermarket for decades. Considering Morgan runs the Gold Shaw Farms YouTube channel, we're positive he would only accept offers from those with honest integrity.

In all fairness, there's quite a lot to like about these Taiga EV snowmobiles, of which two were brought out to Gold Shaw Farms on this late March afternoon. Manufactured in Montreal, Quebec, the Taiga Atlas is a conventional adult-sized snowmobile chassis with an unconventional power source.

Taiga claims the Atlas' robust front suspension and rear tread system is capable of handling acceleration from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds thanks to its 120 horsepower permanent magnet electric motor.

Unlike our mom and dad's electric motors, these "perma-mag" electric motors are light, powerful, and don't drain their batteries quite as ferociously. With an estimated range of around 100 kilometers (62-ish miles), chances are good you won't need to ride it long enough to drain the battery.

The Atlas isn't a completely noiseless machine; its electric motor emits a muted but delightful little buzzing noise as it trundles across deep snow. A welcome sign for both Morgan and the animals under his care.

Rest assured, there's no shortage of animals at Gold Shaw Farms. Morgan's gaggle of Cattle, Chickens, Geese, Ducks, farm Cats, and two Merema Sheep Dogs would probably get pretty spooked with a two-stroke snowmobile revving up behind them.

Let alone the amount of pollution those nasty engines can be, especially when they're older. If not for being so darn fun when under wide-open throttle, they'd be an overall deterrant to any small farm operation.

That's there where Atlas comes in the clutch in the best possible way. Not only does the peppy but quiet motor not spook his cows, but the two techs from Taiga the team sent from Montreal claim it's also pretty adept at towing around straw bails. Another added bonus for a farmer, no doubt.

Around this time of year, just before springtime, in this case, it's easy for lesser snowmobiles to get bogged down in the soupy mess that occurs when you have a layer of surface snow combined with thick mud from all the melt.

At least here in rural Vermont, none of this was of any difficulty for Morgan and the group from Taiga. The scrappy, French Canadian startup he graciously allowed to come out and test their equipment on his property. What fun it was to watch them.

Even this late into the winter, it's only practical to traverse the lesser populated regions of Gold Shaw Farms with a vehicle of some kind. In the summer, it's a Quad Bike or Morgan's Ford F-150 Truck if necessary. Although Morgan only seldom drives his truck deep into the property. He's made it a point that he aspires to maintain the beauty of the terrain on his property here since time in-memorial.

After seeing what Morgan gets up to during his time with his day-loaned Taiga Atlas, it's easy to see how an electric snowmobile of its time would be nothing but useful for anyone operating a farm of this nature.

That's without even touching on its lightning-quick performance and ability to be one fantastic toy. Whatever the specific buyer may require, the chances are good that an electric snowmobile with a quality of this high grade will be able to meet demands.

As for Morgan, he may need a bit more practice out on the trails. At least he's a good enough sport to keep the footage of him falling off his snowmobile in the video he uploaded to his YouTube page. In the end, Morgan had nothing but great things to say about Taiga and their new EV Atlas snowmobile. Check that out below if you want to learn more about his thoughts on it.

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