LiveWire Sparks Harley’s Electric Dreams Again

Harley-Davidson has announced its second sub-brand-- LiveWire. The company revealed the logo of  the new venture and announced that the first LiveWire-branded product will be revealed on July 8.

It is no secret that Harley-Davidson has been in troubled water for the last few years. After Jochen Zietz took over the helm from Matt Levitech, the bar and shield brand scrapped the ‘More Roads To Harley-Davidson’ program and put the focus back on building V-twin cruisers (and an ADV). The LiveWire seemed like an oddball in H-D’s portfolio until now.

The electric motorcycle brand now has a new logo and a “virtual” headquarters, with teams based in Silicon Valley and Milwaukee. So, how does the brand intend to expand? Harley-Davidson aims to sell the LiveWire products through existing dealerships. The company is exploring physical as well as digital retail platforms.

The LiveWire has been an ambitious project for H-D. After over five years in development, the company’s first electric bike made its debut in 2019. Harley intended to introduce a young and new audience to the brand through the electric bike. However, the almost USD 30,000 (Rs 22 lakh) price tag meant only middle-aged and affluent customers could afford it. Yes, many of the LiveWires sold found space in the garages of existing Harley owners.

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With the ‘Hardwire’ strategy, Harley-Davidson aims to lead the market in the electric vehicle industry. We have already seen the brand do it with the Serial 1 electric cycles, and now with the LiveWire. This not only helps Harley-Davidson maintain its identity of building true blue big-bore American cruisers, but also helps these sub-brands forge their separate legacies.

Harley-Davidson has toyed with the idea of having a separate brand that caters to a different audience earlier as well. Though an electric motorcycle brand from Harley certainly seems exciting, the American market already has the likes of Zero Motorcycles and Energica Ego. Unless Harley-Davidson learns from its previous mistakes and focuses on the new brand too, the LiveWire may turn out to be another Buell Motorcycles story in the making.