Polaris to Reveal Slingshot Three-Wheeler on July 27

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

Polaris Industries is set to reveal a new three-wheeled roadster on July 27 called the Slingshot. Polaris has been working on this project for quite some time. The photographs in this post were actually filed in September 2011 in a design registration through the European Union’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).

Discuss this at our Polaris Slingshot Forum.

The Minnesota-based company has created a new microsite at www.PolarisSlingshot.com where it will release new information on the Slingshot every Monday until the July 27 launch. To start things off, Polaris released a short teaser video:

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The question on most people’s minds is whether the Slingshot is a car or a motorcycle. Visually, the Slingshot looks similar to KTM’s X-Bow or the Ariel Atom, both of which are classified as cars. One key difference is the single wheel at the rear and two at the front, whereas the X-Bow and Atom have four wheels. Depending on the jurisdiction, a three-wheeled vehicle can be considered a motorcycle, much like the Can-Am Spyder, and Polaris is calling the Slingshot a three-wheel motorcycle.

In Troy Siahaan’s earlier examination on Polaris’ patents for the Slingshot, we know Polaris was using a 2.4 liter EcoTec engine from General Motors, though that may have since changed. From a brief glimpse in the teaser video, we know the Slingshot uses a stick shift, has seat belts and uses a steering wheel like a car.

We’ll find out more in the weeks ahead before the Polaris Slingshot is officially revealed.

[Source: Polaris]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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