Engadget:
Harley-Davidson wasn’t just fooling around when it showed off its electric Project LiveWire motorcycle. In a chat with the Milwaukee Business Journal, the bike maker’s Sean Cummings says that there will be an electric Harley within the next 5 years. That’s 2021, if you want to mark your calendar. He’s not giving any clues as to what this e-bike will entail, but it probably won’t resemble the 2014-era LiveWire.
Having said this, the very fact that Harley is planning a production e-bike is noteworthy.
For the riding community, this is going to be really interesting to watch. Electrics in general are the future and there have been a lot of attempts at electric motorcycles. I’ve test ridden the Zero Electric and it was an interesting experience. But, I’ve gone on record to say I think whatever electric bike Harley introduces will be a failure.
Harley’s customers don’t want electrics. Harley’s customers don’t want “small” bikes. I’ve talked to a lot of Harley riders and potential customers. None of them have any interest in an electric Harley. Low range, low speed, high price and no noise? Non-starter for that crowd. Harley will have a lot of work to convince potential buyers that an electric Harley fits with the company’s brand.
It’s interesting. I have always been a petrol head for cars, having owned and enjoyed TVR’s, Porches and other sports cars. I now have a Tesla Model S, and it makes me feel like all those fossil fuel cars are noisy smelly dinosaurs with inferior performance, safety and technology. I’d never go back now…
Remember, Harleys aren’t “noisy” out of the factory. The noise is a result of the owner swapping out or modifying their pipes to create extra volume. Don’t blame Harley for the idiots waking us up in the middle of the night. 🙂
They’re going to have to figure out how to make them shake and vibrate, and throw in extra parts that will keep falling off.
I’m buying either a Model 3 or Model X in a couple years!
Maybe the customers for such a bike will be different customers than those that buy the current Harley line. So long as it doesn’t come off like a more macho Vespa, it’s worth them trying. The Harley brand has survived worse.
I hate those guys. They make the entire community look bad.
Will it still sound like a farting brontosaurus?
I’ve been a motorcyclist for about 15 years now in Southern California. I’ve done the commuting thing on them, used them for long rides and overall have loved it. My 2004 Honda ST1300 has nearly 200k miles on it now and still runs with nothing more than oil, tire, and break changes. It still can do 300+ miles on a tank of gas on a road trip cruising around 80mph. These bikes sound like George Jetson’s flying car when they ride by you.
Frankly, I don’t get the big and loud Harley culture. Prior to the ST I rode a Kawasaki cruiser that looked and sounded like a harley (before they were sued). I have friends who have them and the only reason we ride together is because they ride behind me where I can’t hear the crap even through my ear plugs. There is no “safety” advantage to noise, none. Especially in So Cal where you are more likely to have someone purposefully move into your space as a result of the noise. As a techie and engineer I love the Zero, but it just doesn’t have the range I want from a bike. I agree with Shawn that an electric Harley will likely be a failure for the reasons he suggests, but I also welcome it because it will like help legitimize electric motorcycles and bring some much needed expansion and competition into this space.
Harley is looking to expand it’s base & the reception that the prototype electric test rides got sent the right messages that their is a market.
They could start with a trike or perhaps a model with a “sidecar” and put all the batteries in there.
An electric Harley seems as likely as a Supercar SUV – yet they seem to be doing pretty well.
I have little to no interest in a motorcycle. However, I have been considering an electric motorbike of some kind, and the Harley brand name would bring me in. Doing a search and finding a ton of Chinese and Korean off brand names with very low mileage-per-charge put me off the hunt for one.
“the Harley brand name would bring me in.” Interesting. Why do you say that?
I unstained some old fossil ‘petrol’ cars, even have interior speakers to “enhance” the engine noise – since all the sound dampening kills the ‘music’…. might need to dedicate a few MWH for those electrics!
I couldn’t help myself and imagined Jack Nicholson on one of these… supporting wheels, sipping a smoothie and all. Just doesn’t work 🙂
Don’t know about their current models. But I used to own a ’57 Knucklehead a decade ago. Imagining the same “quality” (have somebody drive behind you and collect the lost parts) in a high tech device you can’t repair yourself… oh oh. Their appeal is being anachronistic, reason does not really come to mind.
My brother is a huge fan. He’s always owned Harleys and even named his dog Harley. So, it’s the brand I know. 🙂 It’ll be interesting to see what they bring to the electric vehicle line up.
Unfortunately in a lot of places those guys pretty much are the community. And the sportbike crowd is really no better. Also worth pointing out that H-D and other OEMs do nothing to prevent it, which they likely could if they wanted to.
There’s a place in the world for electric motorbikes, and there is place in the world for Harleys. There are not the same place.
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I’m somewhat surprised that there isn’t more support of this “crossover”. I’m relatively young (35) and on my second Harley (Softail Slim was first, now a 2015 Road King). I’m very interested in the Electric Harley. The newer bikes are more comfortable and more powerful than most anything else in their class, and equally as reliable in my experience (64k miles between the two bikes).
The idea of an Electric Harley is hugely interesting to me. It could make a perfect sibling to my RK for around town riding. I fully anticipate that they won’t be able to do a grant touring style bike, but something equal to the 883 Sportster but all electric doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibliity.
I don’t think Harley is going to reduce their R&D on their current line up, I’m quite certain this is going to be an expansion to help bring in a newer/younger crowd, and I see no reason it won’t work. Sure, the old timers might scoff at them, but that is already prevelant amongst Harley riders (ask most if the Street line are real Harleys, or the V-Rod, etc.). But I don’t think Harley is worried about losing that market to anything other than death. They are looking at this as an expansion and a possible future branch for the survivability of the company, and I think it is a very, very wise move. Only my $0.02 of course.
“they won’t be able to do a grant touring style bike,” That actually might make more sense. Bigger bike means bigger/more batteries and more range.