Over the previous few years, Harley-Davidson has been slowly however steadily deepening its electrification measures. The LiveWire was the primary manufacturing electrical bike out of the gate, after years of growth. Riding traits and efficiency generated optimistic suggestions, however lots of people balked at its $30,000 price ticket.
Still, if you happen to’ve watched expertise in varied sectors evolve, you in all probability knew to anticipate that whereas the early pricing could be excessive, these numbers would ultimately fall to a extra reasonably priced stage. Sure sufficient, the LiveWire ONE got here alongside in 2021—which can also be when Harley introduced plans to spin off LiveWire into its personal impartial model. For all intents and functions, the LiveWire ONE was a LiveWire with a $21,999 MSRP to begin—which is a critical low cost over the OG LiveWire.
Then, in early 2022, as Harley was busy gearing as much as undergo with its particular objective acquisitions (SPAC) merger to take LiveWire public, we gained perception into the way forward for LiveWire’s deliberate product strains. First can be the S2 Del Mar, and positive sufficient, the limited-run Launch Edition model launched in May, 2022, adopted by the manufacturing run opening pre-orders within the again half of 2022.
The S2 bikes are Harley’s electrical middleweights, with its timeline additionally discussing S3 light-weight machines produced in cooperation with KYMCO. After all that, it mentioned, the S4 electrical line would give attention to electrical heavyweight bikes—just like the combustion ones which have been Harley’s bread and butter for a century or extra.
This data has been public for a while—however till now, no definitive public statements had been made about the way forward for its combustion engines. In a January, 2023 interview with the design publication Dezeen, Harley-Davidson Chairman and CEO mentioned that the corporate is at present transitioning to turn into all-electric sooner or later down the road. While he careworn that this received’t occur in a single day, and didn’t provide a purpose yr (as another corporations have), he said in no unsure phrases that it’s already underway.
“At some cut-off date, Harley Davidson will likely be all-electric. But that is a long-term transition that should occur. It’s not one thing you do in a single day,” Zeitz advised Dezeen.
He went on to speak about eager to honor the previous whereas concurrently evolving from it, and in addition mentioned of electrification that “it’s a natural evolution that needed to happen.” Part of that evolution is, after all, attracting new clients to the model—aspirational, or in any other case. Expansion of attire strains, for instance, are part of placing the corporate in entrance of people who find themselves outdoors its core viewers, and who might not even have ridden any sort of motorcycle earlier than.
Zeitz had much more to say on the topic, and you may learn the complete interview on the hyperlink in our Sources.
Source: www.rideapart.com