NEWS – Harley-Davidson is jumping into the electric vehicle fray with their new Livewire, all-electric motorcycle. Offering stomach-into-your-spine acceleration of a claimed 0-60 MPH under 3.5 seconds, the Livewire is expected to offer great, albeit nearly silent performance. With an estimated range of 110 miles on a full change, this bike is more of a whisper-quiet city cruiser than a roaring open highway tourer. One benefit of electric vehicles is that 100% of their torque is available instantly. Rather than having to wait for an engine to spin up to get your go-fast-now feeling, you get it with a flick of the wrist, now, now, now. After driving a Chevrolet Volt for over four years, I can tell you that electric vehicle acceleration is something you need to experience to understand. Couple that with a new lightweight frame and the Livewire should feel like a performance motorcycle. It will also offer a new 4.3″ touchscreen display for vehicle status, music and navigation. Of course, you will be able to add on lots of Harley-Davidson accessories to personalize everything.
Harley-Davidson provides multiple charging methods. The Livewire has a built-in Level 1 charger, allowing you to plug in to any 110V socket to recharge. You should get about 13 miles charge per hour, or a full charge in about 8.5 hours. You can also plug into any publically available Level 3 DC Fast Charge station. Level 3 charges much faster at 192 miles of charge per hour, so a full charge should take about 35 minutes or less. The Livewire can also be charged on the more widely available public Level 2 charging network, although it will only charge at the slower Level 1 rate.
The Livewire will offer a very connected experience via the Harley-Davidson app. The app will report location, battery status and alert the user if the bike is bumped or moved. The service is free for the first year with a subscription fee after that.
Purchasers will have three color choices, vivid black (above), yellow fuse or orange fuse.
The Livewire is available now for pre-order starting at $29,799 with anticipated deliveries in August 2019. For more information check out the Livewire page at Harley-Davidson.com.
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It’s a nice bike but no one will buy it. 110miles range for $30k… Yeah, nice LOOKING bike. Nothing else apparently. I’m deeply disappointed.
$30,000 for electric motorcycle they just priced themselves totally out of the market. When you can buy a live wire motorcycle for $13,000 which is faster and has a longer range. What are they doing this is their shot to become profitable and to step in the future so what they do is they out price themselves. This is their chance to get the millennial Market which is all into gadgets Electronics and this could have been a big winner for them but they have to realize Millennials don’t make that kind of money to afford to buy such an expensive luxury motorcycle if anything they’re going to buy something cheaper most likely electric scooter and if after college paying down their bills this motorcycle doesn’t peel to the original Harley-Davidson Rider who Longs for that V-Twin Rumble this is a new motorcycle that could have been but with Harley-Davidson pricing out of just about everybody’s reach bankruptcy should be on their Rising for the old bike maker just my opinion
Does it include the “Tron” light bike sounds? That might be worth it.
Not per the specs – no “pew pew” either 😉
I also think that Harley has priced them out of the market. If they are trying to appeal to millennials they need to be at a lower price range. Why pay that much for an electric bike when you can get a Zero bike that costs at least 10k less and has more torque and distance? I really want an electric motorcycle myself, but for something that is only good for around town driving the price for them needs to drop around 10k or so. I would treat it as a second bike and use my first bike for longer day trips and multi day trips.
$5000 or they do not sell.