Frontiers North Adventures offers polar bear watching tours in Churchill in the Canadian province of Manitoba, which used to be done in diesel vehicles. But exploring such a sensitive environment requires a lighter touch than diesel can provide.

Now the company is converting all twelve of its Tundra Buggies, which offer space for 40 passengers, to electric drive systems. Interestingly enough, Frontiers North Adventures is designing and building their own Tundra Buggies, which has been a challenging path for the explorers.

“The biggest challenge we had with the first vehicle is that it has never been done before. We were working with donated batteries, so we had to build our own systems and we had to do it all from scratch…so part of why it took so long is because we needed to figure it out,” explains Jessica Burtnick, manager, marketing and communications at Frontiers North Adventures. “What we’re kind of hoping is the second (Tundra Buggy) is going to be a little bit easier … [and] by the time we hit that that 12th Tundra Buggy we will have perfected it.”