May 26, 2020
The Red Dot Jury has made its decision: Taiga Orca emerged victorious from the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2020 and won a Red Dot for its good design quality. This means that Taiga Motors is one of the winners in the world’s most renowned design competition.
Designed from a clean sheet to embody the elegant, powerful, and playful characteristics of its namesake.
Taiga’s 100% electric personal watercraft, Orca, was developed from a clean sheet to offer a zero-emissions and a silent ride that outperforms combustion engine PWCs.
Orca introduces a new style of design to the powersports industry, featuring a full carbon fiber hull and top deck, futuristic body lines, and a floating seat made possible by the absence of a combustion engine. Behind Orca’s color integrated digital display is an onboard computer offering intelligent connectivity via built-in GPS mapping, LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. From the dashboard or the connected app, users can adjust vehicle parameters such as speed and power limits. Orcas will wirelessly receive continuous vehicle software upgrades as the latest advancements are made available.
Orca’s lithium-ion battery runs on an automotive standard system voltage of 400 volt and can be charged from a regular outlet for overnight charging, standard automotive chargers, and DC fast charging to 80% in 20 minutes. With up to 180 horsepower, a top speed of 104km/h and a weight of under 270kgs ready to drive, the Orca delivers one of the highest power to weight ratios in the industry.
Red Dot CEO Professor Dr. Peter Zec on the laureates
“The winners of the Red Dot Award have proved that they have created excellent products worthy of winning an award. The products won over the jury not only through their aesthetic, but also thanks to their incomparable functionality. With their designs, the award winners are setting new standards in their industry. I wish to congratulate them most sincerely on their success,” said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of Red Dot.
Detailed evaluation of the products entered
The Red Dot Award: Product Design offers designers and manufacturers from all over the world a platform for assessing their products. In 2020, designers and companies from 60 countries entered more than 6,500 products in the competition. The international jury comprises experienced experts from different disciplines and has been convening for around 65 years in order to select the year’s best designs. The adjudication process lasts several days and is based on two essential criteria: The jurors test all of the entries in order to assess not just the aesthetic but also the materials selected, the level of craftsmanship, the surface structure, ergonomics and functionality. After intensive discussions, they make a decision on the design quality of the products. True to the motto “In search of good design and innovation”, only the best designs receive an award.
Taiga Orca in exhibitions, online and in the yearbook
On 22 June 2020, Orca will be added to the exhibition “Design on Stage” in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, where all of the award-winning products will be on show. The museum will thus be a hot spot for best-in-class industrial design. From that date, the winning product from Taiga Motors will also be presented in the online exhibition on the Red Dot website. The Red Dot Design Yearbook 2020/2021 comes out in July 2020.
About Taiga Motors
Taiga Motors, the Canadian company behind the world’s first electric snowmobiles, presents their first electric personal watercraft, Orca. It represents the next phase in product development for Taiga and a new segment of personal watercraft, defined by conscious luxury, high performance, and connectivity.
About the Red Dot Design Award:
In order to appraise the diversity in the field of design in a professional manner, the Red Dot Design Award breaks down into the three disciplines of Red Dot Award: Product Design, Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design and Red Dot Award: Design Concept. With more than 18,000 entries, the Red Dot Award is one of the world’s largest design competitions. In 1955, a jury convened for the first time to assess the best designs of the day. In the 1990s, Red Dot CEO Professor Dr. Peter Zec developed the name and brand of the award. Ever since, the sought-after distinction “Red Dot” has been the revered international seal of outstanding design quality. The award winners are presented in the yearbooks, museums and online. More information is available at www.red-dot.de .
Press contact at Taiga Motors
Tristan Evans
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Phone: +1 514 882 8841
