The Youths Aren’t Buying the Harley LiveWire

[admin]

Let Me Guess, Price? Harley-Davidson’s new electric LiveWire was supposed to usher in a new era for Harley. One that wasn’t dominated by sales to older riders. However, so far the folks who are interested in the LiveWire enough to actually buy it are pretty much what you’ve come to expect from Harley—old wealthy guys. ...
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[GregC]

I think that’s pronounced “the yutes”

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[Gigs]

So I'm 33, I commute on my NC everyday. The idea of an electric motorcycle appeals to me greatly. However, this one (livewire), is unfathomably expensive. I'm an operator at a nuclear power plant and my wife is an RN, we do alright. But goodness, who my age is supposed to afford this thing. If it were half the price, maybe. I remember drooling over the Victory impulse TT and it was $20k, still too much money. That's a new NC plus gas until the bike literally dies then another new NC. What were they thinking?

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[670cc]

I always thought the LiveWire was designed as a novelty product to keep the Harley name in the news, and earn the company a few extra bucks from old white men that could afford them as a second bike, not ever aimed at new youth riders. I also thought LiveWire was in the works before Harley realized their core, heavy iron antique motorcycle business was soon heading down the toilet.

I once thought of Harley as the geniuses of marketing, seeing how they could sell outdated bikes at premium prices, and even get customers to pay them to eagerly advertise for them with clothing, decals, etc. If Harley ever thought they could bring in new, young riders by offering a huge $30,000 short range electric motorcycle, then they had definitely lost their marketing smarts.

 

[melensdad]

LIVEWIRE is a joke at the price point.

But I think that is true for most of the electric bikes on the market today. Most are trophy bikes that are not practical for more than day rides to/from Starbucks.

Most have 100 mile ranges, which makes the "commuter" an ideal target demographic but most of the electric bikes seem to be performance or naked bike style street racers. Seriously?

Want to actually make $$$ on an electric bike, make something that is the equivalent of a 2 wheel Nissan LEAF. The Nissan LEAF is a cheap electric car, outsells the Tesla and works just fine as a city or local commuter vehicle. It is also the top selling electric car in the world, despite the fact that nobody ever sees them on the roadways.

So aim for the commuter market with an electric bike, give it some storage space like a Frunk, or even a couple small integrated cargo boxes for a briefcase, lunchbox, rain gear, and sell it at a reasonable price and it would probably become a pretty big seller. The fact that electric bikes don't have gearboxes makes them less intimidating to new riders and could expand the world of riders.

But the LIVEWIRE, no! Ditto all the other high priced electric bikes.

 

[melensdad]

So here is another drawback to the LIVEWIRE, with its 100 mile range. California is starting rolling blackouts, cutting electricity to entire cities/areas.

Better charge up now.

Its apparently serious enough that TESLA is recommending that TESLA owners charge their cars fully, and those vehicles have 250+ mile ranges. I suppose some enterprising young person could drive around with a gas powered generator to charge up the stranded LIVEWIRE and TESLA vehicles.

LINK => California power outages: Tesla owners warned to charge cars