Harley-Davidson has just made a press announcement about the Livewire. Lets talk about what Harley Davidson has said in the Press release and what they didn’t and what does it mean for the future of the Livewire Electric Motorcycle.
So in a press release by Harley-Davidson announces that Livewire will become an all electric motorcycle brand. Harley Davidson wants Livewire to be seen as more that just a motorcycle, blah blah blah you know the usual marketing stuff to appeal to your emotions and feelings and make you feel all warn and fuzzy inside about this change.
CEO Jochen Zeitz said previously that one of the 6 pillars of his Hardwire Strategy to rebuild Harley Davidson included leading in Electric. Livewire now has mission to be the most desirable electric motorcycle brand in the world… this sounds a lot like Harley Davidson’s mission. He also said Livewire will pioneer the future of motorcycling and that Livewire will innovate and develop technology that will be applicable to Harley-Davidson Electric motorcycles in the future (Record Scratch) hold up didn’t we just say the electric motorcycles were going to be branded as Livewire, so I assume it means that are no longer branded as Harley Davidson? Well the website, Instagram and facebook are live for the new brand and based on these images that appears to be correct, ho HD or Bar and Shield is present on the bike displayed on these sites.
The first Livewire Branded Motorcycle is scheduled to Launch July 8th and premiere July 9th at the international Motorcycle Show. If we are just rebranding the livewire would you premiere it an international motorcycle show? Does this mean it is a new model of Livewire? Well Harley has been know to upgrade the motor from a 107 to a 114, add rear foot pegs, a pillion seat and a new paint job and vala you have a new model. So I would not expect something new or drastically different to be revealed on July 8th but have heard some rumors about the next version of the livewire so we will circle back to that in a minute.
One of the things I found most interesting in this announcement is it live wire will work with participating dealers from the Harley-Davidson network as an independent brand. An innovative go-to-market model will blend digital and physical retail formats, tailoring the experience to the local market and allowing customers to discover LiveWire on their own terms. LiveWire will operate dedicated EV showrooms in select locations, starting in California. Here customers will be able to experience the LiveWire brand in an immersive and innovative way.
Do you think this mean Harley-Davidson dealerships have not been as successful in marketing and selling the livewire as the company would have liked, do you think the typical livewire customer might not feel at home and comfortable walking into the traditional Harley-Davidson dealership so we are going to try a new approach to selling them?
Now back in March we learned from certification filings in Australia a little bit about the 2021 livewire according to those documents the motorcycle gained 13 pounds and lost 4 horsepower. My suspicion is we probably are going to gain a little bit of range by possibly adding a slightly bigger battery and by tuning it to be less aggressive on acceleration. But how much range are we really going to add that’s my big question. I’m not saying there’s not a place for this motorcycle in the world, there’s just not a place for it in my world. I’m not interested in a $30,000 motorcycle did I can only ride for an afternoon or commute to work on for a week without having to recharge it. Most of my weekend riding results in trips over 150 miles. According to the specification sheet on Harley-Davidson website the maximum range on this motorcycle is 146 miles based on city driving, highway driving at a sustained 70 mile an hour reduces the range to 70 mph. The range for combined driving conditions still comes in just under 100 miles. I have no doubt this may be an amazingly fun motorcycle to ride it just doesn’t make financial sense for me with these kinds of limitations, I don’t live in an area where EV charging stations are prevalent, and the infrastructure just isn’t here yet in my area.
Do you think we will see any significant changes to the Livewire on July 8th and do you think spinning the EV Motorcycle Division of to be a separate brand will help or hurt the future of the Livewire?
YouTube Video Version: https://youtu.be/uosbcyHdnS8