Smart move on HD’s part. The sales of their EV bike have been terrible. I personally have never seen one on the road. This allows HD to capitalize on the wildly unrealistic expectations of investors in EV producers AND insulate themselves from the potential failure of this business unit by cleaving it off from the “mother ship” producer of “potato-potato” bikes.
It could create a pot of money for HD to create an EV bike that can actually sell. HD needs to get their traditional management away from the LiveWire product so they can design an EV bike that buyers want instead of this short-range lunch bike that doesn’t make any noise.
HD killed the Buell brand after they bought it and “managed” it to death because they did not understand the sport bike market Eric Buell was trying to build for.
The EV bike is more expensive than anything HD builds except for the CVO bikes. I’m sure that puts a damper on sales. Couple that with a short range of 96 to 146 miles, and it’s not much of a cruiser.
Well, at least their range is longer than that of the now-discontinued Smart EV.
IIRC, the so-called Smart’s range was no more than 73 miles.
That’s why I called it a “lunch-bike” It will run you a few miles to lunch and back… Maybe a “bar-hopper” bike as well. That kind of motorcycle is for people who like the idea of OWNING a Harley more than actually riding it… You know… Satan’s Dentists or The Angry Accountants
But the LiveWire couldn’t appeal to that crowd at all. They’d look pretty silly all leathered-up with their dew-rags on a bike that went hhhummmmm instead of a loud potato-potato. 