A New Chapter for Indian

On Monday, October 13th 2025 Polaris released a statement announcing the sale of a majority stake of Indian Motorcycle, effectively spinning Indian off into a standalone company.

While the internet went crazy with headlines and the comment sections went wild with speculation, Polaris was much calmer in the headnotes on their press release which claimed that the separation of the companies “Sharpens Strategic and Operating Focus for Both Polaris and Indian Motorcycle.” Polaris also said that the move allows them to focus on growing and moving the Polaris brand into profitable territory.

The short story is that Polaris has separated Indian Motorcycle into a standalone company that will be majority owned by Carolwood LP, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles.
Carolwood LP has already announced a CEO and Polaris states that Indian Motorcycle will retain the majority of its designers, engineers and staff, including all of its manufacturing resources in the USA and abroad.
900 current employees along with the Iowa, Minnesota and Swiss facilities will make the transition to the new entity, but won’t actually move anywhere. At least that’s the gist from the multitude of news and media outlets.

A reason to split

Polaris had a rough 2024, as did the whole powersports industry. Sales slumped in North America with Polaris reporting a 90% decrease in Q4 2024 compared to Q4 2023. They ended the year down 26% from the previous year.

The industry “returned to normal” after the 2020-21 surge. Inventories were high as were interest rates in 2022-23, and the sales forecast started to slump for most OEMs in 2024. 2025 has not been any better for Polaris, reporting another 6% loss in Q2 of this year.
With the industry still slow as we enter the final quarter of 2025, a spin off was probably eminent.

Since announcing the split, Polaris is suddenly on the front pages of several financial sites with headlines of a “rebound”, sudden earnings per share increases and expectations to beat earnings estimates. Indian Motorcycle accounted for 7% of Polaris’ earnings in the last 12 month period. Now the star-badged brand can focus on the 93% that remains, while inventory, tariffs and interest rates still leave the next few months uncertain.

A New Horizon

With the deal set to take place in early 2026, Indian is poised to begin a strong new chapter in its storyline.
As early as 1930 when Indian merged with Du Pont Motors, the chain of ownership started to quickly multiply. In 1945, Du Pont signed Indian over to the Torque Engineering Company, who finally shuttered the operation in 1953.

Since 1953 Indian has come in and out of production, bouncing from owner to owner and organization to organization. Brockhouse was the first company to acquire Indian and rebadge small displacement scooters and motorcycles with the Indian name. From 1960 – 1984 Associated Motor Cycles, Floyd Clymer, Alan Newman and American Moped Associates all followed the Brockhouse model by rebadging scooters and mostly European motorcycles as Indians.

The path goes dark for a bit, but Indian came back with short lived success in 1999, and managed to survive a few more ownership changes until Polaris acquired the brand in 2011.
Since the first bikes rolled on to showroom floors in 2013, Indian has been on a steady upward trajectory. Something that they haven’t been able to claim in decades.

They began racing flat track again in 2017, and until their motor was no longer accepted for competition, they completely dominated the sport – even forcing rivals Harley-Davidson to abandon the dirt for the remainder of Indian’s reign.
2019’s FTR shocked the motorcycle industry, and again embarrassed Harley-Davidson who failed to bring a Bronx or 1200 Custom to market, and struggled to produce the Pan-America and Sportster S in the expected time frame.

With the evolution of Bagger racing and corresponding support classes a-la the Super Hooligan National Championship series, Indian is once again competing on Sunday and selling on Monday.
Although Harley-Davidson is not likely to back down in the displacement war, Indian dominates the ergonomics and rider features landscape. They have rider aids and features that only luxury brands like BMW used to tout in their lineup.

Despite the reactions of “R.I.P. Indian” and the comparisons to Victory, Buell, etc. it’s my opinion that Indian Motorcycle Company will thrive and continue to succeed in the market under Carolwood LP’s ownership.

Maybe we will see a bike to compete with the Pan-America and the possible return of the FTR to Indian’s lineup. Decisions can be made faster now that they don’t have the massive entity of Polaris guiding the bean-counting.
Carolwood LP chose Mike Kennedy to head Indian as the CEO. He comes with 26 years of Harley-Davidson leadership experience, and additionally worked for Vance and Hines and RumbleOn, both powersports staples.

Only time will tell, but I think Indian is about to write one of the most successful chapters in its storied timeline.

-Junk