Harley-Davidson Updates the LiveWire

Now Slightly More Enticing

When the Harley-Davidson LiveWire debuted, the bike was hit hard by consumers and media for not being good enough and for being way too expensive. We joined in on this dog pile. The bike simply didn’t appear to offer enough to be a competitive bike.

Well, Harley has made some updates to the model and they’ve made the bike a little more interesting. Here are the big updates that you should probably know.

First off, the bike’s range was increased from the 110 miles that the company originally stated to 140 miles per charge in the city. The highway range sits at 88 miles if you travel 70 mph. That’s an improvement, but not a life-altering one. Harley also noted 0-60 mph in three seconds flat and 60 to 80 in another 1.9 seconds.

The charging time for the bike now sits at 0 to 80 percent in just 40 minutes and 0 to 100 in an hour with a DC fast charger. That’s quick, but

Charging Stations and Low Volume

As Asphalt & Rubber points out, the more impressive changes may come from the dealerships themselves. Harley plans to add a DC fast charger at each of the 200 locations that plan to sell the LiveWire. That’s a smart move by the company to bring people to the store regularly.

Asphalt & Rubber also notes that projections for the sales of the LiveWire look decent, and there’s a chance that Harley could meet the small volume goal it set. If the company sold 1,000 units nationwide, it would mean the Harley sales folks would only have to convince less than one percent of customers to go electric. That seems like a doable feat.

Still, the price of the LiveWire hasn’t changed, and it won’t. The bike is supposed to be Harley’s halo machine, which is how they justify the high price, but when there are other electric motorcycles out there with more range and power for far less money, it’s going to be a hard sell.