A trade dispute that had already made Canadian vehicles more expensive to ship south is about to create a much harder barrier for one of Quebec’s best-known manufacturers. BRP has confirmed that its Can-Am Spyder and Canyon three-wheel vehicles built in Valcourt, Quebec, will be excluded from importation into the United States beginning September 29, 2026.
The restriction stems from a new U.S. proclamation covering Canadian-origin motorcycles and similar cycles powered by internal-combustion engines larger than 800 cc. Both affected Can-Am families use 1,330-cc Rotax engines, placing them squarely inside the targeted category. BRP expects the immediate financial effect to be limited because most production and shipments for the current season are already complete, but a prolonged ban would create a more complicated challenge for future model-year deliveries.
Sept. 29 Turns a Tariff Problem Into an Import Ban
The biggest change is not simply the cost of sending a Spyder or Canyon into the United States. It is whether a new Canadian-built unit can enter at all. The White House proclamation takes effect for covered goods imported on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on September 29. Its accompanying annex specifically excludes Canadian products classified under HTSUS 8711.50.00, covering motorcycles and cycles with reciprocating internal-combustion engines exceeding 800 cc.
That marks an escalation from the 50% additional duty that had already applied to the affected Canadian products. BRP confirmed that the rule captures the Spyder and Canyon models produced at its Valcourt operation. There is an important transitional detail: covered goods imported before September 29 but not yet entered for consumption or withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption do not automatically escape the earlier trade measure. The proclamation says those units remain subject to the 50% duty. For BRP and its distribution network, September 29 therefore represents a genuine dividing line between a costly tariff environment and a prohibition on new covered imports.
The 800cc Threshold Catches Both Models Cleanly
There is little ambiguity about why Spyder and Canyon fall into the category identified by Washington. The U.S. annex describes motorcycles and related cycles powered by reciprocating internal-combustion piston engines with displacement above 800 cc. BRP equips its current Spyder F3 and Spyder RT families with the Rotax 1330 ACE, a 1,330-cc inline three-cylinder engine producing 115 horsepower and 96 lb-ft of torque. Canyon uses the same 1,330-cc Rotax architecture and is also rated at 115 horsepower.
That means these vehicles do not sit just above the cutoff; their engines exceed it by more than 500 cc. The mechanical similarity also explains why two models aimed at rather different riders are caught together. Spyder includes cruising and long-distance touring configurations, with 2026 U.S. starting prices ranging from $22,299 for the F3-S to $33,999 for the RT Sea-to-Sky. Canyon takes the three-wheel concept toward adventure travel, with its 2026 U.S. lineup starting at $25,999 and offering features intended for paved, dirt and gravel roads. Customs classification, however, focuses on criteria such as engine displacement and origin rather than the lifestyle positioning of the machine.
Valcourt Is at the Center of the Fallout
The restriction lands directly on one of BRP’s most historically important Canadian operations. Company filings list the Valcourt manufacturing facility at approximately 815,000 square feet and identify it as the production location for Ski-Doo snowmobiles as well as Can-Am Spyder and Canyon three-wheel vehicles. BRP says the site assembles the affected machines and manufactures components for them, meaning the U.S. action intersects with an established Quebec production chain rather than simply an imported badge attached to foreign-built hardware.
Valcourt also has a role that stretches beyond final assembly. BRP’s Product Development Centre there serves as an R&D hub for Ski-Doo, Sea-Doo and Can-Am products, while the Laurent Beaudoin Design & Innovation Centre houses design and advanced-concept teams. Across the company, BRP invested approximately C$434.7 million in research and development during fiscal 2026, equivalent to about 5% of annual revenue. The company’s own manufacturing strategy acknowledges that tariffs, customs duties, free-trade arrangements, market proximity and political conditions influence where products are made. That makes the new restriction particularly consequential: it targets products closely connected to the company’s Quebec manufacturing and development base.
BRP Says the Near-Term Financial Hit Should Be Limited
For the moment, BRP is trying to distinguish the severity of the trade measure from its immediate impact on earnings. The company says the vast majority of production and shipments for the current three-wheel season have already been completed. Because BRP’s fiscal year ends January 31, it expects the new U.S. restriction to have a limited effect on fiscal 2027. That timing provides a buffer: vehicles already shipped into the distribution system are different from future Canadian-built units that would need to cross the border after the ban becomes effective.
Still, the company enters this episode with tariffs already visible in its financial statements. BRP reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of C$2.24 billion, up 18.5% from a year earlier, but recorded a C$136.8-million net loss. Gross margin fell to 11.7% from 21.1%, with BRP pointing partly to U.S. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper. Normalized EBITDA declined 34.9% to C$138.8 million. BRP also warned that third-quarter normalized diluted earnings per share could fall approximately 50% to 60% year over year, mainly because of increased tariff impacts. The Spyder-Canyon ban therefore arrives in an environment where trade costs are already a material management issue.
U.S. Dealers Face a Model-Year Timing Problem
Can-Am’s three-wheel business is supported by a substantial retail footprint. BRP said in its 2026 model-year announcement that more than 1,050 Can-Am three-wheel dealers operated across North America, including more than 870 in the United States. Those dealers do more than sell vehicles: BRP’s filings say dealers typically stock service parts and perform warranty and non-warranty repairs, while company production is adjusted according to orders and changing market conditions.
The timing of the new barrier is especially awkward because the next model year is already being promoted. BRP unveiled its 2027 three-wheel range on August 17, less than a month before the company confirmed the U.S. restriction. Its U.S. website currently advertises pre-orders for products including the 2027 Canyon Redrock, starting at $29,999, and Spyder RT Sea-to-Sky, starting at $34,999. Existing dealer inventory is not the same thing as a future shipment from Quebec, so the immediate showroom picture will depend partly on what has already entered the United States. If the restriction lasts into future production and delivery cycles, however, replenishing affected models becomes a substantially different issue from simply absorbing a higher tariff.
Spyder Has Nearly Two Decades of History Riding on the U.S. Market
Spyder is not a recent experiment for BRP. Early sketches date to 1996, and the machine was formally launched to dealers and consumers near San Diego in February 2007. After more than 2,500 prospective owners placed pre-orders, the first production Spyders rolled out of Valcourt in September of that year. A month later, television personality and vehicle collector Jay Leno received serial number 001 in California. By 2015, BRP marked production of its 100,000th Spyder.
That history demonstrates how intertwined the vehicle has been with both Quebec production and the American customer base from its earliest days. BRP subsequently expanded the family with touring and performance-oriented versions and added Ryker and, much later, Canyon to its broader three-wheel strategy. The segment itself remains relatively specialized: BRP estimated the global three-wheel vehicle market at approximately 27,000 units for the 2025 season, down from roughly 32,000 in 2024 and 38,000 in 2023. Even in that shrinking category, BRP said it held the leading global market-share position. Restricting U.S. access therefore affects a product with significant historical and strategic importance relative to the size of its niche.
Canyon Is a Much Newer Bet, Making the Timing Particularly Awkward
While Spyder has been around since 2007, Canyon represents BRP’s effort to stretch the three-wheel formula into a newer category. BRP introduced Canyon for the 2025 model year and returned it for a second season in 2026. Instead of concentrating primarily on cruising or touring, Canyon is designed around adventure-style riding on paved roads as well as dirt and gravel. The 2026 version uses the 115-horsepower Rotax 1330 ACE engine and offers four drive modes, higher ground clearance and long-travel suspension.
BRP had only recently begun promoting the next evolution. Its August 17, 2026, announcement detailed changes across the 2027 three-wheel family, including new styling and feature updates for Canyon and Spyder. Canyon Redrock gained a new Sandstone colour option, while compatible machines with BRP’s 10.25-inch display were slated to receive the company’s new on-road navigation system. In other words, the U.S. import restriction surfaced just weeks after BRP unveiled its next model-year plans. That does not erase Canyon’s markets outside the United States, but it creates a major uncertainty in an important North American market precisely as the relatively young product line is being developed and promoted.
Ryker Shows Why Country of Origin Matters More Than the Badge
The Can-Am name alone does not determine whether a three-wheeler is caught by this particular measure. BRP’s lower-priced Ryker illustrates the distinction. Company manufacturing disclosures show that Ryker was assembled at BRP’s Juárez 1 facility in Mexico during fiscal 2026, with production beginning a transition to a new facility in Vietnam in fiscal 2027. BRP’s spokesperson specifically identified the Mexico-assembled Ryker as being spared from the Canadian import exclusion affecting Valcourt-built Spyder and Canyon.
That is significant because engine size alone would not tell the full story. BRP’s redesigned entry-level 2027 Ryker is receiving a 900-cc Rotax ACE three-cylinder engine producing 52 horsepower, replacing the previous 600-cc base engine. Ryker Sport and Special Series models also use 900-cc engines, rated at 80 horsepower. Those figures exceed the 800-cc threshold, but the White House annex is aimed at specified products of Canada. Origin therefore becomes the other essential part of the customs equation. The result is an unusual split within one Can-Am showroom: vehicles sharing the same three-wheel brand identity can face very different treatment at the U.S. border because their production footprints are different.
The Legal Lever Is Section 338, Not a Conventional Vehicle Rule
The restriction is a trade action rather than a new U.S. vehicle-safety or emissions standard. The White House invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a rarely discussed provision that allows the president, under specified circumstances, to impose additional duties of up to 50% and ultimately exclude goods from a foreign country when the administration determines that discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce has been maintained or increased.
The Trump administration says Canada’s motor-vehicle tariff system discriminates against U.S. commerce and that Canada failed to remove the treatment after earlier negotiations. Canada disputes Washington’s broader trade approach, and the two governments have blamed each other as their dispute has escalated. Earlier U.S. action had imposed 50% duties on targeted Canadian products, followed by a brief suspension and then reinstatement. The September proclamation moves some categories from additional tariffs to outright exclusion. Reuters reported that the same escalation also hit specified Canadian alcohol and dairy imports and came after Canadian counter-tariffs on about $20 billion of U.S. goods took effect. The Spyder and Canyon restriction is therefore one piece of a much larger Canada-U.S. confrontation rather than an isolated decision concerning recreational vehicles.
What Happens Next Depends on Customs Rules and the Trade Fight
The proclamation gives U.S. Customs and Border Protection an important implementation role. CBP is authorized to issue rules, guidance, instructions and determinations needed to administer the exclusion, while additional technical modifications to the U.S. tariff schedule can be made through Federal Register notices. That means importers and dealers will have to pay close attention not only to the September 29 date but also to any customs guidance that clarifies how individual shipments and classifications are handled.
There is also a built-in fallback that shows how strongly Washington intends to preserve the trade penalty. If the import ban is invalidated in whole or in part for a particular import, the proclamation says the previous 50% additional duty applies to the affected import instead. At the same time, trade policy can change through political decisions and negotiations. Reuters reported that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canada’s minister responsible for bilateral U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, remained in contact over a possible path forward. BRP’s initial public response did not announce a relocation of Spyder or Canyon production or another workaround; it emphasized the limited immediate fiscal impact. For Valcourt, U.S. dealers and Can-Am riders, the more important question is now how long the barrier remains in place.
