At the Pegasus Gala Night of Business on June 10, 2021 at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, BRP-Rotax received the Pegasus in Silver in the category Innovation Emperor.

Wolfgang Rapberger, GM BRP-Rotax / Representative of the Management Board, who accepted the award, was very pleased that we were able to convince the jury with our innovations.

As a technological pioneer, we recognized the importance of alternative drive models at an early stage. A forward-looking development that will also have a decisive impact on the racing sector. In 2017, for example, we opened up a new and sustainable business field with our first own e-kart, the BRP-Rotax THUNDeR. With the follow-up project E20 and our initiatives at competition level, we are now setting new standards in the racing kart sector. In 2020, the German Electric Kart Championship became an action-packed showcase for the new E20 e-kart, with the innovative electric drive from BRP-Rotax.

Furthermore, we are on an extremely successful path to also gain a foothold in the rental sector with our karting products. With the BRP-Rotax MAX Dome in Linz in 2019, we have developed an easily accessible offer for the leisure sector that combines real – sustainable – driving experience with the virtual world. The concept of the BRP-Rotax MAX Dome opens up a completely new business model for BRP and thus also provides access to an expanded customer base. At the same time, it is an important step for us in the area of digitalization of our products and offers. The entertainment segment will play an increasingly important role in the future. By combining real and virtual elements, the BRP-Rotax MAX Dome is our manifest expression of a new era of leisure entertainment.

In winter sports areas, noise and pollutant reduction as well as the use of renewable energy sources are an ever-growing topic. Together with project partners and financial support from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG and the Climate and Energy Fund, we demonstrated the potential of hydrogen as a sustainable drive of the future in the HySnow project.

With our pioneering projects, we are not only driving the decarbonization of winter tourism, but also that of motorsports. Our ongoing research into alternative drives and the development of electric vehicles – such as the E-Kart E20 – are fostering the ever-growing trend toward sustainable driving pleasure.

In view of international travel restrictions and a large number of new vacancies for the assembly lines at our Mexican plants in Querétaro and Juárez, we were faced with the challenge of selecting and subsequently training suitable employees. This was no easy task as the expertise for this was mainly located in Gunskirchen. We found the forward-looking solution in a globally unique VR job assessment with a gamification approach, which we developed and implemented together with the Innsbruck-based VR specialist Mediasquad.

With our new virtual reality job assessment, we have found a way to successfully transfer the high-quality standards in the selection of our assembly employees across national borders into virtual space. A trend-setting project that will also offer us new opportunities in the future in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. This has also been recognized internationally: The Academy of International Extended Reality awarded our solution the prestigious "VR Enterprise Solution of the Year" prize. In the final main category, our project prevailed against renowned competitors such as British Airways or even the US Air Force.

The Pegasus business award, which OÖNachrichten has been organizing with its partners Raiffeisen Landesbank Oberösterreich, Land Oberösterreich, Wirtschaftskammer, Industriellenvereinigung and KPMG since 1994, was held this year under the motto "Comeback of the Economy".

Picture: PELZL Roland