Part of the overhaul of the Harley-Davidson business operations is the creation of the LiveWire electric motorcycle brand, which will stand apart from the Bar & Shield and offer Milwaukee’s future electric ventures.
As such, LiveWire is ready to show us its first motorcycle…again, as the LiveWire ONE is a lightly updated Harley-Davidson Livewire motorcycle.
As of this writing, the official death toll in the United States from COVID-19 deaths stands at 86,248 souls. This is truly a devastating time for our country, both in the loss of life, and the effects it is having on our society.
To provide relief to this pandemic, Harley-Davidson is teaming up with auction house Bonhams to offer a special one-of-a-kind Livewire motorcycle, and all of the proceeds (excluding taxes and fees) from the auction will be donated to United Way Worldwide’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund.
The auction will be held online by Bonhams, from Tuesday, May 12th, 2020 thru Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 , and is available to only for participants from the United States.
William Shakespeare wrote the story “Much Ado About Nothing” which easily could have been the true telling of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire production halt, which we reported last week.
This is because we are happy to report that Harley-Davidson has resumed the production line for its first electric motorcycle model, after determining that concerns over the bike’s charging system were localized to a single model.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting tough news for the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, as the American motorcycle brand is halting production of its first electric motorcycle because of issues with the bike’s charging system.
With bikes just now arriving at dealers, the announcement is poorly timed, and the issue seems to stem from the onboard Level 1 charger on the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, as owners are being told only to use the DC fast-charging system on the bike.
Ever since Harley-Davidson told us that it would be bringing the electric-powered Livewire motorcycle to market, the Bar & Shield brand has been vague on details.
Surprisingly, as production was confirmed for the 2020 Harley-Davidson Livewire, detailed tech specs were still hard to come by, with Milwaukee choosing to talk more in experiential terms, rather than hard figures.
And even the night before the international press was set to ride the Livewire for the first time, Harley-Davidson wouldn’t talk spec sheets with us…until now.
From this we learn some critical numbers about the Harley-Davidson Livewire. 105hp / 86 lbs•ft of torque; 15.5 kWh (13.6 kWh nominal) of battery; 549 lbs of heft at the curb; and much, much more. Don’t worry, we’ve got all the technical details for you.
In what has to be the shortest commute for an international press launch, our hometown of Portland, Oregon is playing host to the first riding of the Harley-Davidson Livewire.
This is our first press launch with the Bar & Shield brand, and it is a big one at that. The Livewire is a mammoth shift for the motorcycle industry, as Harley-Davidson becomes the first major manufacturer to debut a full-sized electric motorcycle for the street.
The Livewire is a big deal for the American brand as well, as Harley-Davidson is pivoting its business model towards new horizons, new markets, new riders, and most importantly for today’s purpose: new drivetrains.
The Harley-Davidson Livewire is a halo product from Milwaukee, but it shows how far the marque is willing to go in order to ensure its future. The question before us now though, is the bike any good?
Tomorrow we will be among the first to ride the Harley-Davidson Livewire, the Bar & Shield brand’s first electric motorcycle.
The model marks a paradigm shift for the American company, as well as the motorcycle industry as a whole, so you can imagine that a great deal of attention will be on the machine’s debut.
Before we get our own first-hand experience with the bike, there is some talk about Harley-Davidson’s pre-sales activity on the Livewire.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson has tipped to Powersports Business that roughly 50% of Harley-Davidson’s initial batch of Livewire deliveries have deposits on them.
Episode 9 of the Brap Talk podcast is out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and once again this is a marathon show full of good two-wheeled conversation.
We hope you’re ready to plug in, because this episode is all about electric motorcycles, as there has been a lot of movement in this space since we last recorded.
Harley-Davidson has been slow to release concrete details on its Livewire electric motorcycle, and to be honest, today is no different.
This is because the Bar & Shield brand remains mostly mum on the hard specs that we crave, but with today’s release, we do see that the Harley-Davidson Livewire is stacking up better than many had once thought.
The reason for this is two-fold. One, Milwaukee continues to finalize the specs on this highly anticipated machine. And two, Harley-Davidson is getting closer to its summer launch and is building its marketing momentum.
However you look at it though, today marks another garment removed in this two-wheeled strip tease. We hope you have your dollar bills at the ready. We still have a few months more to go.
The Episode 5 of the Brap Talk podcast is out for your aural pleasure (though a little late because we have both been battling head colds). Our delay was fortuitous, however, as it allows us to discuss the recent news from Harley-Davidson.
Bar & Shield brand surprised us on Monday by announcing pricing and some performance specs on the Livewire electric cruiser.
Harley-Davidson also gave us a glimpse at two upcoming of its EV concepts, which show a utilitarian scooter and moped-like off-roader.
Before we get into a talk about Harley-Davidson’s electric future though, we discuss another American brand that’s teasing an electric model: Zero Motorcycles.
The Harley-Davidson Livewire will show at EICMA, says an awkward press release to the European and Canadian markets. Our sources confirm that news though, and as such the Livewire will make an official public debut, at the trade show in Milan next week.
The Harley-Davidson Livewire is expected to make a late-2019 arrival, likely as a 2020 model year machine. This makes this debut announcement an interesting one from the Bar & Shield brand, which has seemed over-eager lately to explain and show its future plans, though we can’t imagine why.