LiveWire, the spinoff electric motorcycle company from Harley Davidson will be expanding into the Japanese market to start selling electric bikes.
H-D CEO had already stated that the future of the company will be totally electric and it appears he is determined not to miss out on the growing market.
The company already has a foothold in the Japanese market and controls approximately 40% of the imported bikes with a growing fanbase not only with the older generation but with the young too.
EV bikes are becoming more commonplace of course, however mostly in the low power sector for urban riding. LiveWire have struggled to gain ground with unit sales since their launch on the NYSE last year and has been making substantial losses too, however the parent company are committed to sticking with the EV concept.
As for Japan, well the big four Japanese brands have recently started to launch their own EV bikes too, albeit scooters. So H-D see a market for their larger bikes, given that they already offer the LiveWire One and soon to finally release the S2 Del Mar.
Unfortunately for the company there has been growing disconnection and discontent from Harley Davidson fans who have largely rejected the electric revolution, so instead of terms of LiveWire endearment, the project has been rooted with the DeadWire Term.
The point here is that electric bikes are not a bad thing. In fact for urban riding they are great but the prices were always the stumbling block. The Japanese brands are now producing EV bikes with comparable prices to petrol bikes, but H-D and LiveWire are producing EV bikes that are more powerful and costly too. So where is the market for these bikes? Well it remains for the select few who would buy into this for shorter journeys, urban rides or whom are completely committed to the electric mobility movement.
For their part, Harley Davidson are merely positioning themselves into markets with emerging EV bikes and ready to be competitive but also offer an option that is proven and more powerful. But will the market respond in kind or will the trend be towards cheap to buy and cheap to run…none of which applies to Harley Davidson which is synonymous with vibration, sound and the smell of petrol.
CEO Jochen Zeitz recently said; “There is a long-term transition from combustion (engines) to whatever the technology is going to be,”…”I have yet to see an electric motorcycle from Japanese brands in the segment where LiveWire is competing,”
So the intention is clear from the company head. Will the Japanese customer base view his ambitions with such clarity?
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