USA TODAY International Edition
Evinrude engine choke a shocker
Boaters, dealers in dismay on end of outboard motors
The sinking of Evinrude, an icon in the outboard engine business born in Wisconsin more than a century ago, has left dealerships and boaters saddened, upset and perplexed.
In late May, BRP, the Canadian manufacturer of Evinrude outboards, said it was walking away from the brand that was once a fierce competitor with Fond du Lac- based Mercury Marine, eliminating nearly 400 jobs at its factory in Sturtevant.
“Our outboard engines business has been greatly impacted by COVID- 19, obliging us to discontinue production of our outboard motors immediately. This business segment had already been facing some challenges, and the impact from the current context has forced our hand,” BRP president and CEO José Boisjoli, said in a statement.
Evinrude dealers said they were stunned by the announcement that came as the U. S. boating season was getting underway and that followed BRP’s launch of three new Evinrude engines in 2019.
“That’s why this took us by surprise,” said Joseph Pekora who owns one of the largest Evinrude dealerships on the East Coast.
“We were very, very shocked. They’ve kept us completely in the
What led to the brand’s demise? A couple of things, according to industry insiders, including Evinrude falling behind in the “horsepower race” for bigger, more powerful engines.
dark,” said Pekora with Barnacle Bill’s in Delmont, New Jersey.
BRP has signed a deal with Mercury Marine to buy engines for its boat brands, Alumacraft and Manitou. That also turned heads in the industry, where for decades, Evinrude and Mercury fought for customer loyalty.
“It was like Packers and Bears,” said
Charles Plueddeman, a writer for Boating Magazine who lives in Oshkosh.
Retail sales for outboards, all brands considered, increased for the eighth straight year in 2019, according to Boating Industry magazine. Unit sales reached a 13- year high.
Yet BRP defended its decision to discontinue Evinrude outboards in a marketplace dominated by Mercury Marine and another competitor, Yamaha.
“We won’t comment or speculate on what our dealers had to say about this decision, and we stand by our belief in the technology we produced. However, over the last few years, despite its innovative technology, our outboard engine lineup has been losing shares in a market that was already difficult,” BRP said in response to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel questions.
“As the current situation forced us to reduce our investment plan and review downward our growth expectation for the business, the path to profitability improvement for outboard engines was too long and it became apparent that we had to take the difficult decision to discontinue our outboard engine production,” the company said.
Some Evinrude dealers said they were disappointed after having defended the brand for decades, even remaining loyal during the bankruptcy of its previous owner, Outboard Marine Corp. that once employed thousands in Milwaukee.
“I am beyond disappointed,” said David Zammitt who owns one of the oldest Evinrude dealerships in the nation, Lockeman’s Hardware & Boats, founded in Detroit in 1918.
“I lived through the OMC bankruptcy, all of the downturns, the upturns and everything else in the marine industry,” Zammitt said. “Now for BRP to jump right in bed with Mercury to supply motors for their boats is just unbelievable to me.”
Zammitt said he learned of BRP’s decision through social media. “I never saw it coming,” he said.
Tim Doberstein, who owns Spellman’s Marina in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, said he, too, got the news secondhand.
“They wouldn’t even tell me at Alumacraft or Evinrude. I had a customer call me,” he said.
BRP, which also manufactures SkiDoo snowmobiles, Sea- Doo personal watercraft and Can- Am all- terrain vehicles, said because it’s a publicly- traded company, it couldn’t give advance notice to the Evinrude dealers.
“We have mandatory protocols to follow when we do this type of announcement. We informed our employees and made a public statement, which we are obliged to do first,” the company told the Journal Sentinel.
BRP filed a notice with Wisconsin’s
Department of Workforce Development, saying it was eliminating 387 jobs in Sturtevant over the next four months.
“These decisions will impact 650 employees globally,” BRP said.
However, the company says it’s not selling the Sturtevant plant which is the world headquarters for the Evinrude brand founded in Milwaukee in 1907.
Instead, the plant will be reused for marine products including BRP’s “Project Ghost” and “Project M” aimed at developing new types of boats and motors.
The company hasn’t released details, but industry experts say they’re expecting a line of recreational boats, including pontoons, with engines placed under the deck rather than hung off the transom. “Maybe the Evinrude name comes back then. We just don’t know yet,” Plueddeman said.
What led to the brand’s demise? A couple of things, according to industry insiders, including Evinrude falling behind in the “horsepower race” for bigger, more powerful engines.
Also, the company kept its “twostroke” engine design that requires consumers to add oil to gasoline, something the rest of the industry walked away from years ago.
Still, the latest “E- TEC” Evinrude engines are loaded with advanced technologies. In 2019, Popular Mechanics magazine even called one of them, “the most efficient boat engine we’ve ever seen.”
“E- TEC engines are all about simplicity: no oil changes, barely any maintenance, great fuel economy,” Popular Mechanics said. But dealerships say consumers want “four- stroke” outboards, like what Mercury and Yamaha now sell, and that don’t require the mixing of oil and gasoline.
“You can talk to someone until you’re blue in the face, but they want fourstrokes,” said Pekora from New Jersey.
On Okauchee Lake, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, there’s a plaque to honor Ole Evinrude whose invention brought outboards to the masses, much like Henry Ford did with automobiles.
Legend has it that Evinrude came up with the idea after rowing across the lake to get ice cream for his fiancé, Bess. By the time he returned, the ice cream had melted.
After they were married, Bess placed an ad in the Chicago Tribune offering “Evinrude” boat motors for sale. “Throw away the oars. Buy an Evinrude row boat motor,” it said.
When orders for a dozen or so motors came in, she told Ole that he better get to work on them, and the world’s first outboard motor company was born. The death of the brand, at least in its current form, saddens some boaters who have been loyal to it for many years and enjoyed the rivalry with Mercury Marine.
“It really does stink to see this happen. Competition is a good thing in the industry,” said Danny Woodke, a fishing guide from Gillett whose boat is powered by an Evinrude.