LiveWire started as a Harley bike. After one year it was spun off into it's own brand and it's own company. That didn't go so well, few bikes were sold, and partners like Kymco left.

So now, Harley has announced they're absorbing LiveWire back into the mothership.

With the high profile failure of Erik Buell's Fuell electric motorcycle company, and Sondors, and Energica, and Cake, and on and on and on, it looks like this move by Harley might be the last step before finally pulling the plug.

 

About 370 MILLION $`s to late

 

in the not too distant future MC manufacturers will have to start offering a non ICE models.

California is currently considering legislation requiring that 10% of motorcycles sold must be non ICE. This means that if you manufacture bikes, you must sell one EV bike for every ten you sell. If you sell no EV bikes, you can't sell any ICE bikes. This could be as soon as 2028. Four years from now. By 2035, half of the motorcycles sold will have to be zero emission.

Harley needs electric vehicles in their lineup. it's as simple as that. This net zero stuff is also happening in Europe now, and as the US moves more and more to the left politically, this will eventually be a federal law.

 

^ I think the OP`s point that buyers are staying away and manufacturers are folding (today) is more relevant than possible ( future ) legislation

 

Let's be clear. I like the original LiveWire, and I like the S2 Del Mar. I am not against those products, and I would definitely buy either one at the right price.

What I'm saying is, I seem to be the only one. Harley has barely sold any LiveWires. In fact, for the last year they sold exactly zero of their flagship model, the LiveWire One. And that's with hundreds of millions of Harley's money (and $89 million of taxpayer dollars) backing them! If this venture can't succeed, then who can? And as the article points out, the answer is nobody. All the big names have shut down, except Zero, and Zero is currently trying to raise $120 million. What happens if they can't?

I want to see Harley succeed with this, but there just isn't a market for it. It's just like 3D televisions, a few wanted them, the manufacturers bought in big, and then nobody bought any more and the whole thing collapsed.

It looks like that's what's happening here. Kymco pulled their money, LiveWire stock is worthless, their sales projections are embarrassingly wildly inaccurate, spinning LiveWire off didn't work, so now it's Old Yeller time. Harley is telling LiveWire to come back in, and "look at the flowers. "

California mandating it is just like California's famous approved handgun roster, where they require manufacturers to incorporate micro stamping technology. Problem is, microstamping doesn't work, never will work, and is laughingly easy to subvert, so no manufacturers have ever implemented it. The result is that California consumers are stuck with a list of old and frequently outdated products to choose from, while manufacturers supply new models to pretty much every other state.

It's a whole lot easier to reverse a legal mandate than it is to force tens of millions of people to buy something they clearly don't want.

 

The Livewire has to be under 10K, they needed to lose money in sales and get a crap ton of product out there.

 

Agreed. At that price, I would have bought the original the first day it was out. Same with the Del Mar S2, at $7999 that would have been mine. But they came out of the gate at double and triple those prices.

Now, knowing that the dealers are likely going away and support will be minimal and there's no aftermarket to speak of, my price targets have shrunk considerably.

 

 

The problem is the CA legislation. CA is a big market for Harley. CARB standards also dictate standards for 15 other states, and the auto manufacturers follow suit. Harley already has a special VIN number for CARB compliant motorcycles. Most of the other manufacturers just ship 50 state compliant motorcycles.
If CARB mandates that motorcycle manufacturers must sell electric motorcycles in order to sell motorcycles in CA, and these other 15 states.. Harley will probably be offering an electric motorcycle.

 

Another reason I think Livewire split off, is because Corporate required dealers to install charging stations at their own expense, just to be able to sell them. Most dealers weren't willing to do that. I agree with previous posts, if they are going to be viable, they need to be much cheaper to appeal to the customer base that wants them.