Ask The Editors: Who Owns the UTV Market?
Dear ATVC:
I’m wondering if you could help settle an argument. I say Polaris has always been the leader in the UTV industry, my friend says it’s Yamaha. Who’s right?
Actually neither of you. While it’s true Yamaha enjoyed the largest market share with the introduction of the Rino UTV line and Polaris now holds court as offering the most versatile UTV line with the Ranger RZRs, this wasn’t always the case.
In fact in as recent as 2005, the top UTV maker by marketshare was John Deere at 21% (followed by Kawasaki with 18%, Polaris 13%, Yamaha 12%).
These days competition from Can-Am and Arctic Cat especially are keeping the race for top position as tight as ever.
Some other interesting facts concerning many of the manufacturers involved in this race include the following: Polaris and Arctic Cat’s main ATV testing and assembly facilities are located about 70 miles from each other in Minnesota. Edgar Hetteen was a co-founder of Polaris and the sole founder of Arctic Cat and Suzuki has historically owned well over 30% of Arctic Cat, but has been gradually selling off its stock back to Arctic Cat. Hopefully this knowledge will help you win future arguments.
