First ride: I went wild off-roading in the all-electric Polaris RANGER XP Kinetic
I was recently invited on an eye-opening trip to visit the sprawling Polaris proving grounds in Wyoming, Minnesota. There, over 600 acres feature 17 miles of trails carved from the earth to test Polaris’ off-road vehicles through a range of heavy duty scenarios. And with the company’s exciting new all-electric RANGER XP Kinetic set to roll out to customers next year, I was stoked for the chance to get an early test on the new utility side-by-side.
I should preface this with the fact that I haven’t actually driven a gas-powered Polaris RANGER before. In fact, I’ve never driven any side-by-side. I’m normally a two-wheeler guy, but I jumped at the chance to test this thing out, and to push it HARD. Coming from motorcycles, I must say it’s amazing how much fun you can have when you don’t have to worry about little details like, you know, tipping over.
Though I did get that electric side-by-side up on two wheels more than once, which is a testament to just how much power the RANGER Kinetic XP has. You can go from a stand still to a hair-raising two-wheel ride in just a few seconds flat.
There’s a reason the Polaris engineers call it the “best and most powerful RANGER ever built.” It bests every gas-powered RANGER that came before it when it comes to power, throttle control, ease of use, reduced maintenance, and just about everything else.
Check out my testing video below to see me putting the RANGER XP Kinetic through its paces.
Polaris RANGER XP Kinetic test video
Motorcycle propulsion, four-wheeler ruggedness
The beauty of the Polaris RANGER XP Kinetic is the way it combines the electric motorcycle drivetrain from Zero Motorcycles with the long-standing Polaris RANGER vehicle design, including all the years of ruggedization testing that have gone into the vehicle’s gas-powered older brothers.
If you’re already familiar with the existing RANGER line, then you’ll instantly feel at home in the electric model. Outside of a few key giveaways like the lack of a grille, it’s hard to tell the two apart at a quick glance. Around 95% of the RANGER 1000 accessories are compatible – that’s how similar they are.
The real difference is in the powertrain and in the interface.
The controls are simplified, and you get new fancy features like the RIDE COMMAND screen that adds connectivity and functionality, including features like waypoints for marking important points (that’s where I dropped off those hay bales or left that deer…), viewing the GPS markers of other RANGERs in your group (great for fleet operators or larger farm/ranches with many hands operating multiple vehicles), and a pile of other fun features I didn’t even get a chance to try.
But let’s get real – the biggest difference is, of course, the performance. It’s night and day, and that’s why the Polaris engineers aren’t shy about calling the RANGER XP Kinetic the best RANGER they’ve ever built.
I was flying around turns, shooting up inclines and bouncing over obstacles without a care in the world. The journalist driving in front of me hit a damn tree and no one even noticed, including him! That’s the power we’re talking about here, people.
That Zero motor has been custom modified by Polaris, and the side-by-side is using that 110 horsepower to perfection thanks to the engineering team expertly marrying it to the RANGER’s existing vehicle platform.
That doesn’t mean it didn’t require some modifications, of course. With added liquid cooling to keep things from running hot and battery heaters to keep things from running too cold (I learned that remote ice fishing is a serious thing up there), Polaris has turned that electric sport bike powertrain into a monster of utility in a four-wheeled vehicle.
Work or pleasure? How about both!
The RANGER line is of course about utility. Polaris has other fun vehicles that are pure recreation, but the RANGER is about getting stuff done. But with this new electric drivetrain, it’s so responsive and powerful that it feels like a joyride anyways.
I was driving it like a dune buggy, getting as much air as I could on ever bump and keeping as few wheels on the ground as possible at any one time.
But when it comes to what it’s designed for, actual honest to goodness work, that’s where I think it is really going to shine. Because everything that went into the electric drive also helps make it that much more potent for utility tasks.
The extra power and torque give it huge towing and hauling capabilities (2,500 pounds and 1,250 pounds, respectively). The low noise means you can operate early in the morning without bothering anyone – get an early start plowing snow without waking the neighbors.
The quiet operation is great for hunters or photographers trying to get deep into the woods without a loud engine scaring off the animals before they can get in range for the perfect shot.
The precision control that comes from the electric motor makes reversing, parking, lining up a tow hitch, and other tight quarters operations that much easier.
Though, on that note, this was my one big complaint. I felt lots of precision in forward gear, but in reverse it felt quite sensitive. I could creep up to a sleeping kitten in forward gear, but I wouldn’t have trusted myself to do the same in reverse – it was like the reverse gear wasn’t programmed as smoothly or something.
And maybe that was it, who knows? These were prototype vehicles, after all. But that’s another cool thing about electric – all that fix takes is a laptop and a data cable. Done!
Want to make modifications or change the torque profile on a gas engine? Cool, start boring out a cylinder or swap a connecting rod. Have fun with that. Want to do it on an electric vehicle? Ok, plug in this USB cable. Done! I don’t envy being an engineer on the ICE team.
Everything is just simpler when its electric, and it just works better. Instead of an ICE engine with hundreds of moving parts, you have a more powerful electric motorcycle with a single spinning shaft.
Do you really want to be dealing with clogged air filters or fouled spark plugs when you’ve got a job to do? No, you just want your vehicle to work. And electric just works. Fewer parts, fewer problems.
BuT WhAt aBoUt tHe RaNgE?!?
So here’s the part where people start to go something like this: “Sure, Micah. You had fun for an afternoon. But what’s the range? Will it work on my 90,000 head of cattle ranch that stretches from Austin to Anchorage?”
Here are the numbers: You get two trim options. The cheaper model (still expensive at $24,999) gets 40 miles of range, and the more expensive model (yikes, it’s $29,999) gets double the battery for 80 miles of range.
That’s enough for you. I know you think it isn’t, but you’re probably wrong. 1 in 10 of you might be right, but that’s enough range for most anyone using these for either recreational or real utility work around the farm. Not only do they charge up straight from a Level 1 or Level 2 charger enjoying 120V or 240V charging, but you can probably do everything you need in a day on a charge.
And now you’re scoffing and saying, “I don’t get it.” But you know who does get it? Polaris. One of the engineers mentioned to me how a big part of the battle is just helping people realize that what they think they need and what they actually need are two different things. When surveyed in the past, many RANGER owners said they rode about a 100 miles a week and average around 35 to 40 mph. When checking data-loggers, it turned out they did more like 20 miles a week and and averaged 17 mph. Whoops.
It feels cool and all to think you’re the biggest baddest rancher of them all and that 80 miles per charge isn’t enough for you, but the truth is, a single charge will last most users for days. Plus refueling is even easier since you do it at home in the garage or barn instead of ferrying red gas cans back and forth each week. And realistically, if you actually are the biggest baddest rancher of them all, then you’d want the most powerful, most capable RANGER of them all. And objectively speaking, that’s the XP Kinetic.
If you ever hear a RANGER coming, you’ll know it’s not as powerful or capable as this one.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
The BP logo is displayed outside a petrol station that also offers electric vehicle recharging, on Feb. 27, 2025, in Somerset, England.
Anna Barclay | Getty Images News | Getty Images
BP shares jumped on Wednesday after activist investor Elliott went public with a stake of more than 5% in the struggling British oil major, which has pivoted back to oil in a bid to restore investor confidence.
BP shares were last seen up 4.75% at 9:44 a.m. London time. The London-listed stock price is down around 5% year-to-date.
Hedge fund Elliott Management has built its holding in the British oil major to 5.006%, according to a regulatory filing disclosed late Tuesday. BP’s other large shareholders include BlackRock, Vanguard and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.
Elliott was first reported to have assumed a position in the oil and gas company back in February, driving a share rally amid expectations that its involvement could pressure BP to shift gears from its green strategy and back toward its core oil and gas businesses.
Within weeks, BP, which has been lagging domestic peer Shell and transatlantic rivals and posted a steep drop in fourth-quarter profit, announced plans to ramp up fossil fuel investments to $10 billion through 2027. This marked a sharp strategic departure for the company, which five years ago became one of the first energy giants to announce plans to cut emissions to net zero “by 2050 or sooner.” As part of that push, the company pledged to slash emissions by up to 40% by 2030 and to ramp up investment in renewables projects.
The oil major scaled back this emissions target to 20% to 30% in February 2023, saying at the time that it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet global demand.
Since switching gears, BP’s CEO Murray Auchincloss and outgoing Chair Helge Lund — who is expected to depart the company in 2026 — retained their posts but were penalized with reduced support during BP’s board re-election vote earlier this month amid pressure from both revenue and climate-focused investors.
BP’s strategic reset back to the company’s oil and gas activities took place just as crude prices began to plunge amid volatility triggered by U.S. tariffs and Washington’s trade spat with China, the world’s largest crude importer.
Energy analysts have broadly welcomed the strategic reset, and BP CEO Murray Auchincloss has since said the pivot attracted “significant interest” in the firm’s non-core assets.
The energy firm nevertheless remains firmly in the spotlight as a potential takeover target, with the likes of Shell and U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron touted as possible suitors.
BP is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. The company has said it anticipates lower reported upstream production and higher net debt in the first quarter than in the final three months of 2024.
Tesla’s earnings report dropped today, and news isn’t great. But instead of recognizing his failures that have led to Tesla’s downturn, CEO Elon Musk lashed out with conspiracy theories while also hypocritically failing to acknowledge that his company was only profitable this quarter due to regulatory credits.
The numbers are in on Tesla’s dismal quarter, with sales, profits and margins tanking significantly for the company despite a rising global EV market.
You’d expect a drop in car sales to be top of mind for a car company, but instead of talking about this, CEO Elon Musk opened the call by talking about his ineffective advisory role to a former reality TV host.
Musk is heading up the self-styled “Department of Government Efficiency,” an advisory group that is focused on reducing redundancy in government. The office is not an actual government department and has a redundant mission to the Government Accountability Office, which is an actual government department focused on reducing government waste.
Musk originally claimed that the department would be able to save $2 trillion for the US government, which is actually impossible because federal discretionary spending is $1.7 trillion, which is a (gets out abacus) smaller number than $2 trillion.
He has, of course, failed at this task that anyone with any level of competence would have known was impossible before setting it out for themselves, and now projects that the department will save $150 billion next year, less than a tenth of his original estimate. But even that projection is likely an overstatement, given that most of the supposed savings that DOGE has found are not actual savings at all.
On top of this, the US government’s deficit has grown to the second-highest level on record – with the first happening in 2020, the last time Mr. Trump squatted in the White House. Which means the government isn’t saving money, it is in fact borrowing and spending more of it than ever before.
So, Musk’s tenure in the advisory board has been an unmitigated failure by any realistic account.
But if you listened to Tesla’s call, you wouldn’t have known this, as Musk was quite boastful of his efforts – starting a Tesla conference call with an irrelevant rant about his fake government department, instead of with Tesla business.
He claimed that he has made “a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud” and that the job is “mostly done,” which is not correct by his own metrics. Musk stated that his purpose is “trying to bring in the insane deficit that is leading our country, the United States, to destruction,” and as we covered above, that deficit has only increased.
But he also went on to spew some rather insane conspiracy theories about the reasons behind his company’s recent failures, all of which of course put the blame on someone else, rather than himself. The buck stops anywhere but here, I guess.
His primary assertion was that the “blowback from the time I’ve been spending in government” (which, again, is an advisory role, not an actual government position) has come mainly from protesters that were “receiving fraudulent money” and are now angry that the government money spigot has been turned off.
Which, of course, he’s provided no evidence for… and he’s provided no evidence for it because it’s false.
Besides, that’s not how protests work. But incorrect claims that protests do work that way are often used by opponents of free speech, with the motivation of putting a chilling effect public participation. Fitting behavior for an enemy of the First Amendment like Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, this assertion also comes from a person who tried and failed to bribe voters to win an election. Perhaps his admiration of Tesla protesters is aspirational – he wishes his ideas were good enough to inspire that sort of grassroots political effort that money, demonstrably, cannot buy.
But this hypocrisy extends beyond Musk’s hatred of free expression, and strikes at the heart of the business he is the titular leader of, Tesla, the organization that has made him into the richest man in the world. Because not only is it not true that Tesla protests are driven by his ineffective government actions (they are, in fact, driven by him doing Nazi stuff all the time), it’s also objectively true that Musk’s companies are a large recipient of government money.
And that’s particularly relevant today, to the very earnings call where Musk made his ridiculous assertion, because in Q1 2025, Tesla only turned a profit due to government credits. Without them, it would have lost money.
Tesla only profitable in Q1 due to regulatory credits
Per today’s earnings report, Tesla earned $595 million in regulatory credits in Q1. But its total net income for the quarter was $409 million.
This means that without those regulatory credits, Tesla would have posted a -$189 million loss in Q1. It was saved not just by credit sales, but credit sales which increased year over year – in the year-ago quarter, Tesla made $442 million in regulatory credits, despite having higher sales in Q1 2024 than in Q1 2025. So not only were credits higher, but credits per vehicle were higher.
This is a common feature of Tesla earnings, and we even said in our earnings preview that we expected it. While Tesla had a bad quarter, nobody expected it to become actually unprofitable, because there was always the possibility of increasing regulatory credit sales to eke out a profitable quarter.
And this has been the case many times in Tesla’s past, as well. In earlier times, Tesla’s first few profitable quarters were decried by the company’s opponents as an accounting trick, suggesting that regulatory credit sales weren’t “real” profits, and that the cars should have to stand on their own.
This is a silly thing to say – businesses do business in the environment that exists, and every business has an incentive structure that includes subsidies and externalities. If we were to selectively write off certain profits for certain businesses, we could make a tortured case that any business isn’t profitable.
Plus, these opponents didn’t extend the same treatment to the oil industry, which is subsidized to the tune of $760 billion per year in the US alone in unpriced externalities, yet that is somehow never mentioned during their earnings calls.
Musk has even claimed, probably correctly, that if all subsidies were eliminated both for EVs and for oil & gas, that EVs would come out ahead compared to the status quo (more recently, Musk has become one of the biggest funders of anti-EV forces, allying himself with a bought-and-paid oil stooge who is giving even more preferential treatment to the oil industry).
But, setting aside the debate over whether credits are valid profits (they are), for years now we’ve been well beyond Tesla’s reliance on credits. The company has produced significant profits, regardless of credit sales, for some time now.
At least, until today. That’s no longer true – Tesla did rely on credits to become profitable in Q1. And Musk starting the call with a ridiculous rant about government handouts not only shows his hypocrisy and projection on this matter, but his detachment from reality itself. He is, truly, too stuck in the impenetrable echo chamber of his self-congratulating twitter feed to realize what an embarrassment he’s being in public – to the point of inventing shadow enemies to explain the very real, very simple explanation that people aren’t buying his company’s cars because he sucks so much.
Charge your electric vehicle at home using rooftop solar panels. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you on EnergySage, for free. They have pre-vetted installers competing for your business, ensuring high-quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It’s free, with no sales calls until you choose an installer. Compare personalized solar quotes online and receive guidance from unbiased Energy Advisers. Get started here. – ad*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
No matter how badly a fleet wants to electrify their operations and take advantage of reduced fuel costs and TCO, the fact remains that there are substantial up-front obstacles to commercial EV adoption … or are there? We’ve got fleet financing expert Guy O’Brien here to help walk us through it on today’s fiscally responsible episode of Quick Charge!
This conversation was motivated by the recent uncertainty surrounding EVs and EV infrastructure at the Federal level, and how that turmoil is leading some to believe they should wait to electrify. The truth? There’s never been a better time to make the switch!
Source Links
Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway