Harley-Davidson To Go Electric
Rennie Scaysbrook | June 15, 2016
It looks like the Harley-Davidson LiveWire concept was good for something after all!
Harley-Davidson’s Senior Vice President of Global Demand, Sean Cummings, has told the Milwaukee Business Journal the company will create a production version of the two-year old LiveWire concept bike within the next five years.
The project represents the first official steps by the company into the electric bike market and means the Bar and Shield brand will eventually face arch rivals Victory, who had earlier purchased pioneering electric company Brammo and have been racing at the Isle of Man TT and the upcoming Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, head on in the emerging sector.
Harley-Davidson faces a huge development task ahead of them in ensuring the new electric machine is up to scratch. The 2014 LiveWire prototype, built with expertise from the now defunct Mission Motors, was created to gauge a possible move into the sector – one very un-Harley-Davidson – and the reaction must have been encouraging enough for the board’s directors to give the green light to a project that will no doubt cost more than a pretty penny to develop.
Nevertheless, Harley-Davidson has given itself plenty of time to get this new machine right. At five-year development time, battery technology will no doubt improve, charging times will reduce as will, very importantly, the machine’s overall weight. Details on exactly what the new electric Harley-Davidson will be (cruiser, bobber, chopper, etc) will be are very hard to come by, so expect more drip feeds over the coming months (and years!) as the world gets prepared for a machine that will be an enormous milestone in the company’s history.
