They’re quieter and better for the climate. But snow and water create new technological challenges for designers. Battery-powered snowmobiles produced by Taiga Motors at a charging port in Saint-Paulin, Quebec.Credit...Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times STOWE, Vt. — Snowmobiles are part of the winter soundtrack in this part of Vermont, at their worst shattering the stillness of the forest like motorcycles on skis. But the motorized sleds bouncing along a wooded mountain trail in February were silent except for the whoosh of metal runners on snow. The machines, made by a start-up Canadian company, Taiga, were battery-powered — the...