Just as we thought it could not get any worse for offshoot Harley-Davidson company; LiveWire, it has not emerged that their second electric motorcycle offering – the S2 Del Mar which was scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2023 has hit a major bump in the road and has now been put back until later in the year.
LiveWire…the company has already had a disastrous launch of the NYSE and lost most of its value as start up investors began pulling out, only to be propped up by Harley-Davidson. 2022 was even more depressing than losing hundreds of millions in stock value and ever increasing R&D costs…or if you prefer investment, because the company sales figures of their one and only production EV motorcycle; LiveWire One, only sold just shy of 600 bikes!
Now it appears that the S2 Del Mar which comes in a little cheaper than the $22,799 LiveWire One, in at $16,999 has lost a lot of its predicted 7000 pre orders due to this latest delay…and the final figure could be less than 800 bikes!
Whilst the S2 was launched with some form of fan fair…without many fans to be fair…last year, it became apparent that an over valued company in an emerging market with stiff competition would be more than a match for a second production model that was supposed to appeal to the younger more hip and affluent kind of rider…that many question really existed and if there was such a thing would be more likely to sip their frothy coffee from another source.
So where does this leave LiveWire? Well the company is set to lose another $120million and change this coming year and will have to be propped up by Harley Davidson. The CEO of H-D; Jochen Zeitz is firmly committed to the EV future of the company but with a severely faltering start and an order book that doesn’t exude the wow factor…one has to wonder how long this can continue with the ever increasing competition in the market place.