CES 2019: Harley-Davidson Livewire

[Drew Dowdell]

At the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday, Harley-Davidson announced the production version of the Livewire all-electric bike would go on sale in August of 2019 and pre-orders are open now.  The Livewire starts at $29,799.

The estimated riding range for the Livewire is approximately 110 miles on an urban cycle.  With the onboard level 1 charger (a standard household outlet), the bike will charge overnight. Level 2 and Level 3 DC fast charging is available while out on the road, but charging time has not been released.  Harley has stated that all dealers that sell the Livewire will have chargers on-site for public use.

Harley states that the Livewire can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. That sounds fast for a car, but merely mid-pack for a motorcycle. 

Harley-Davidson in investing heavily in electric motorcycles and expects to have a full portfolio of EV bikes available by 2022.

 

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[Drew Dowdell]

I'm a fan of its looks, not of the price.  Level 3 charging should be really quick.  If the Bolt gets 90 miles of range in 30 minutes on DC fast charging, this should do the same amount of range in a fraction of that... I would guess no more than 15 minutes max to get 90% of range.

[Robert Hall]

I imagine this will freak out all the oldsters that buy Harleys...

[Drew Dowdell]

2 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

I imagine this will freak out all the oldsters that buy Harleys...

Send in the clowns....

[G. David Felt]

Awesome, so excited for this to hit the market. Sad the price is so high, I think they are truly thinking their name will justify the price, but I wonder.

[ccap41]

Well this won't sell at 30k. 

[Drew Dowdell]

35 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Well this won't sell at 30k. 

+1

[G. David Felt]

51 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Well this won't sell at 30k. 

I agree that this will sell in very limited numbers. I am now thinking this is a stop gap measure till they get a new global Electric Bike Platform out. More that this will be used to allow a bunch of test drives for people to get used to the idea of an Electric Bike and allow the dealerships to install their charging systems till the full family is ready to roll out in 2022.

[Drew Dowdell]

Just now, dfelt said:

I agree that this will sell in very limited numbers. I am now thinking this is a stop gap measure till they get a new global Electric Bike Platform out.

They've been working on this platform since 2014. I think they're going to put a few bikes on it.

[balthazar]

The only EVs, either automotive or 2-wheel, that are affordable / close to the median pricing of a new one, are those offered by mainstream corporations heavily invested in IC product that covers the EV loses.
The livewire is not priced high to gouge the fan base, it's priced high because it costs so much to build.
I now am of the opinion that it's pricing, not infrastructure or range anxiety that is the tallest obstacle to mainstream EV acceptance.

[Drew Dowdell]

21 minutes ago, balthazar said:

The only EVs, either automotive or 2-wheel, that are affordable / close to the median pricing of a new one, are those offered by mainstream corporations heavily invested in IC product that covers the EV loses.
The livewire is not priced high to gouge the fan base, it's priced high because it costs so much to build.
I now am of the opinion that it's pricing, not infrastructure or range anxiety that is the tallest obstacle to mainstream EV acceptance.

The problem with that theory is Zero motorcycles . They have a bike that has roughly the same spec of the Livewire but is only $14,595.  Much more reasonable for a bike.

[ccap41]

42 minutes ago, dfelt said:

I agree that this will sell in very limited numbers. I am now thinking this is a stop gap measure till they get a new global Electric Bike Platform out. More that this will be used to allow a bunch of test drives for people to get used to the idea of an Electric Bike and allow the dealerships to install their charging systems till the full family is ready to roll out in 2022.

This isn't a global bike platform? If not, why in the hell wouldn't it be? This is their first production electric bike and they didn't make a global platform? That makes no sense to me at all. 

[G. David Felt]

24 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

This isn't a global bike platform? If not, why in the hell wouldn't it be? This is their first production electric bike and they didn't make a global platform? That makes no sense to me at all. 

Yup I would totally agree, but then who knows, like Drew said, they have been working on this since 2014, so one would hope it is a global platform, but then companies have made major mistakes before.

[Drew Dowdell]

37 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

This isn't a global bike platform? If not, why in the hell wouldn't it be? This is their first production electric bike and they didn't make a global platform? That makes no sense to me at all. 

At the moment, they are only targeting this for sale in the US and Europe.... I think partially due to prices. Would be hard to sell a $30k (plus tariff) H-D in China I would expect.

[ykX]

53 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The problem with that theory is Zero motorcycles . They have a bike that has roughly the same spec of the Livewire but is only $14,595.  Much more reasonable for a bike.

It would be really interesting if somebody will do a comparison when Livewire comes out with the Zero.  Probably the only thing HD has over Zero is dealer network, and I think it looks a little but better.  But it costs double.

[Drew Dowdell]

10 minutes ago, ykX said:

It would be really interesting if somebody will do a comparison when Livewire comes out with the Zero.  Probably the only thing HD has over Zero is dealer network, and I think it looks a little but better.  But it costs double.

I'd love to do such a comparison.