Harley-Davidson Stands Behind Electric Motorcycle Bet from freeamfva's blog

Harley-Davidson Stands Behind Electric Motorcycle Bet

Harley-Davidson, the iconic American motorcycle maker, reaffirmed its commitment to electric models this week in a first-quarter earnings call overshadowed by COVID-19. The company launched its first electric motorcycle, the $29,799 LiveWire, last August.To get more news about emobility, you can visit davincimotor.com official website.

“We’ll expand our profitable iconic heritage bikes to excite our existing customers,” CEO Jochen Zeitz told investors this week. “We also remain committed to...advancing our efforts in electric,” he added, before the company revealed a 45 percent drop in quarterly profits.

While unlikely to appeal to freewheeling Harley-Davidson purists, the LiveWire was drawing praise even before its launch and has raised eyebrows since thanks to stunts such as beating a Tesla Model 3 in a drag race and traveling 1,000 miles in 24 hours (thanks to fast charging).

Perhaps surprisingly given its classic heritage, Harley-Davidson is something of an early mover in the electric motorcycle market, compared to other traditional manufacturers. Other industry leaders such as Honda and Kawasaki also boast electric models, but to a large extent, the nascent e-motorcycle market is occupied by electric-only startups such as Energica and Zero.One is that the firm’s traditional products, sometimes stereotyped as an impulse purchase for men in a midlife crisis, risk falling from fashion for a new generation of riders. Harley-Davidson’s share price had been sliding for years before COVID-19 dealt it a stinging blow.

Another is that Zeitz, a committed environmentalist, is likely keen to make good on a company pledge last year to reduce Harley-Davidson’s environmental impact. In May 2019, the company said it would improve the fuel efficiency of its internal combustion engine models and “lead the electrification of motorcycling with a full EV portfolio, which will further reduce the environmental impact of our motorcycles during use.”Cracking the electric motorcycle nut is not easy. Alta, a much-hyped electric motorcycle pioneer, “stopped operation in 2018,” according to Adrie Peene, director of distributor Electric Life Store in the Netherlands.

Harley-Davidson itself had to halt initial LiveWire deliveries because of an unspecified charging fault.

The state of the electric motorcycle market contrasts with the trend seen in other two-wheeler segments, where electrification is expanding rapidly — particularly in Asia.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that roughly 60 percent of two-wheelers in China were battery-based in 2019. The global share is about 30 percent, but it's mostly mopeds and scooters, said Nick Albanese, BNEF's head of new mobility research.

Electric motorcycles only have around 1 percent market penetration, said Albanese, “primarily as a result of limited model availability and cultural factors.”