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[heroto]

LW is definitely staying. The announcement did not mention if any substantial changes will be made when the 2021 is released this summer. I was hoping for luggage options and grip heaters.

[DeSelbyofDalkey]

Just to obfuscate things further, I visited a local HD emporium to view their (four) LiveWires.

I genuinely wanted to see one in the metal—I have only viewed photos.It is smaller and slimmer than imagined but still very heavy. The styling? Not as, ahem, silly as I originally perceived.

The salesdrone I spoke to had plenty of tattoos. He likes to wheelie and used to ride stunt bikes. Or was that stunted bikes. Which is to say that what he told me about the future of the LiveWire may have no connection to reality.

He and his manager both indicated that HD have updated their product catalogue for 2021 and the LiveWire (along with multiple other HD bike models) was not in it. I asked if HD planned to keep selling the LiveWire as a 2020 model or maybe come out with a new one in 2022, and both thought not.

The new CEO at HD, according to the salesgerms, seems intent on reducing overhead by cutting models and limiting options. Take that as you wish.

I do plan to try out a LiveWire this coming weekend, however. The rest? Whenever I read the phrase, "X is committed to continuing..." usually means that whatever was promised will not happen.

[Oldun]

If it goes away.... yayyy I have a First Collector's Edition 

[caza]

Disappointing but entirely expected. The Livewire didn't do enough to either convert HD's main audience or pull in EV buyers that would otherwise get a Zero or Energica.

It was never going to sell well, and to HD there's no reason to continue with the bike, and the only lesson HD will have learned is "Electric bikes don't sell."

As for the collectors edition, It'll be hard to fix or repair over time, as after it's discontinued I'd expect both parts and qualified mechanics to work on it to be in extremely short supply. And when the battery degrades too much, it'll basically be an art piece.

[Crissa]

Canceling it seems like intending to be a declining company.

-Crissa

[princec]

Well, they're up a certain creek without a certain instrument then, because they won't be able to sell a single bike to the entire of Europe within the next 10 years, which won't please the shareholders very much.

Cas

[caza]

They'll burn that bridge when they get to it.

Right now there are only select city centers that don't allow gas, it'll take some time for that to spread. As long as it's not the most immediate threat, it isn't the most powerful force. Gotta please those shareholders in the short term.

In 2019, between all of Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, Harley sold 44k bikes, compared to 126k in the US alone. This is out of 218k total sales. Those green European city centers are, as of now, the tiniest blip on their radar.

They're a company that has historically refused to adapt, focused in the US market which is also resistant to adapting, so it's no surprise that they're bad at adapting to the electric future.

This won't be the last electric bike from Harley, but the lesson they learned from the livewire won't be "we need to do more of this right now"

[princec]

It could be said that pricing it at twice the price it should have been may possibly have nerfed its success...

Cas

[Oldun]

So much doom :-) Hey, one of these days, I'll be out of production as well - and maybe not enough qualified mechanics and parts to fix me either - but I still had a lot of fun over a lot of years on 2 wheels, electrified or dinosaured. So far for 2021, the ratio of electric to ICE motorcycle miles is 2:1 (skewed by working a lot so no long-distance touring).

[Richard230]

Here is the latest news regarding the future of the LiveWire. You will have to scroll down most of the way past all of the H-D V-twin news to get to the LiveWire information.  https://www.motorcycle.com/features/what-harley-davidson-mentioned-in-its-2021-launch-and-what-it-didnt.html

[Crissa]

Hmm, a summer reveal.

Well, that makes sense, in a Zero we-can't-show-until-ready sort of way.

-Crissa

[JaimeC]

https://electricmotorcycles.news/harley-davidson-strengthens-commitment-to-electric-with-the-creation-of-a-dedicated-division-focused-exclusively-on-electric-motorcycles/

[shayan]

https://electricmotorcycles.news/harley-davidson-strengthens-commitment-to-electric-with-the-creation-of-a-dedicated-division-focused-exclusively-on-electric-motorcycles/

Just read this! Also:

Create a semi-autonomous Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle division responsible for Harley’s electric motorcycle products.  For the immediate future, urban mobility will be at the forefront.  Zeitz says current electric motorcycle technology cannot presently support areas like motorcycle touring.

[NEW2elec]

The two interviews from the Damon team made two points.  Damon CEO Jay Giraud said he thought they had only sold a hundred or so and said he felt they should branch off an electric division to not compete directly with their gas bikes.
While Damon COO and former co-founder of Alta, Derek Dorresteyn said Harley was planning at least one other electric bike and it should be released in the not too distant future.

I guess Jay was right.
I'd guess an adventure type model or scrambler next.

[Richard230]

Here is my take on H-D's latest EV marketing news: First they were going to Rewire and now they want to Hardwire.  As usual you will need to scroll down the page to find their EV plan, which seems to me to be given the Buell treatment so as to keep electric motorcycles at an arms-length distance from their ICE V-twin market  :  https://www.motorcycle.com/mini-features/harley-davidson-reveals-the-hardwire-plan.html