Are there any similarities between the two? Was there a time when a motor was refered to as a Johnson/Evenrude Jonnyrude as if a joint venture like Cobra/Penta merger happened.
Up until very recently (late nineties+) Johnson and Evinrude were identical, except for paint color. More recently, Evinrude has gone e-TEC, and has different motor types and sizes. Johnson has stuck with more standard 2 cycle motors.
Ya, they were both made by OMC, now BRP and I believe they dropped Johnson.
Pre 99 ish, when OMC went bankrupt, I don't think there was much if any difference between a Johnson and Evinrude other than color, kinda like GM and say an Envoy, Buick had a variant, GMC and Saturn had a variant but other than a few trim pieces they were identical.
Don't know the exact date of the OMC merger (early 50's maybe) but from then until recently they were pretty much the same motors with cosmetic differences. Now the only Johnson brand is the 9.9. All others above 9.9 are Evinrude, but BRP owns both.