BRP officially opens its first European Design and Innovation centre in Sophia Antipolis
Apr 17, 2023
On April 11th, BRP Inc. inaugurated its first European Design and Innovation Centre. Located in Sophia Antipolis in the south of France, this new Centre reasserts the central role that BRP assigns to design and innovation as a growth driver. This installation in Sophia Antipolis demonstrates BRP’s desire to immerse itself even more in European trends and to continue to offer products that meet the current and future needs of its customers and the communities in which it operates.
The Centre, which will carry out advanced concept studies on sustainable urban mobility, will play a leading role in BRP’s global electrification strategy. Acting on its CSR25 program, the company committed to a technological transition. It aims to offer electric models in each of its existing product lines and to have, by 2035, 50% of its units sold to be electric.
“Design and innovation are at the heart of our strategy and of our values. We will never stop pushing boundaries in order to offer consumers products that make their daily travels easier and allow them to explore new playgrounds,” said José Boisjoli, President and Chief Executive Officer of BRP. “We are proud to inaugurate the Design and Innovation Centre in Sophia Antipolis, our first in Europe, which will allow us to strengthen our understanding of the market dynamics. This local presence, combined with the ingenuity of our teams and BRP’s culture of innovation, will enable us to better serve our consumers, our dealers and our partners in Europe,” he added.
Nestled between sea and mountain in the heart of a region recognized as a hub for green technology research, the Centre will enable BRP to continue attracting the best design talent in the world to its creative teams.
“BRP’s Design & Innovation team is composed of more than 130 experts of 19 different nationalities. We can transform industry paradigms thanks to the creativity generated by sharing ideas and the plurality of perspectives within our team. The arrival of new colleagues who will be rooted in the European ecosystem will only stimulate our exchanges so that we put all the power of design at the service of our consumers and communities on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Denys Lapointe, Chief Design Officer at BRP.
To make this project a reality, BRP benefited from the close support of local institutional partners, including most notably teams from the Sophia Antipolis Agglomeration Community and the Team Côte D’Azur. Through the course of its explorations, the company also met several key players in the socio-economic landscape who helped it to better understand the dynamics of innovation in the region.
Nicolas Deluy, with his bicontinental expertise, has been leading the Centre’s team since December 2022, which is made up of about 15 experts including industrial designers, colours, materials and finish specialists as well as a clay modeler, from various countries. In addition to its work on advanced concepts related to sustainable mobility, the team will provide design services to internal BRP partners in Europe and Scandinavia.
