A new monthly subscription program encourages new users to get on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcycles, snowmobiles, boats and similar vehicles.

Powersports vehicle supplier Polaris announced Tuesday, July 26 during its quarterly earnings call that this new plan is attracting new entrants to the industry.

“Since the launch of Polaris Adventures Select early last year, 90% of our members are new to the powersports industry, again reflecting our commitment to opening the industry to new riders and customers” , Polaris CEO Mike Speetzen said on the call.

Attract new passengers, customers

The Polaris Adventures Select membership program, which began at a limited number of locations last year and then expanded nationwide in early June 2022, allows members to reserve these vehicles in the one of 200 locations across the United States. With one of the monthly plans, members acquire credits which they can redeem for the use of vehicles.

By renting vehicles this way – through what Speetzen said is the industry’s first monthly subscription program – members avoid the cost and long-term commitment of ownership, can use a variety of vehicles and can reserve the vehicles at participating dealerships in their hometown or a city they visit.

“Members now have free access to get out and explore their own towns or bucket list destinations across the country in a new way, exploring the outdoors off-road, sightseeing in an open-air Slingshot or even while cruising open water by pontoon,” Speetzen said.

Dealing with supply chain issues

In other news, Polaris reported in a presentation released in conjunction with the call that retail sales were down 23% year over year, mostly due to supply chain issues.

The company also reported that demand remains stable and the supply chain is improving, but the supply chain continues to dictate performance as dealer inventories remain at historically low levels. In fact, dealer inventory in the second quarter was down 70% compared to the same quarter of 2019.

“With robust demand that has expanded over the past few years, inventory levels have not been able to keep pace due to supply chain challenges,” Speetzen said, citing this statistic. . “While demand has been strong since 2019, supply chain challenges have limited the industry’s ability to deliver and as a result Polaris grew only 2%. [compound annual growth rate] over the period 2019 to 2022.

In another challenge, commodity prices remain well above historical norms with some sequential improvement, Polaris reported.

See a resilient consumer

Looking ahead, Polaris said it expects supply chain challenges to persist, with modest improvements, and full-year retail sales to decline slightly.

“Dealers continue to be positive on demand and more constructive on availability, which we appreciate, but we know we still have work to do to further improve availability” , said Speetzen. “While other factors such as rising interest rates, inflation and rising gasoline prices are certainly cause for concern, our data continues to show a resilient consumer.”