The LiveWire. Source: Harley Davidson
In huge news overnight, Harley Davidson’s has revealed plans to spin off its electric Livewire operation into a new company, with a possible US$1.77 billionn ($A2.5 billion) valuation and exciting details about the future of electric motorcycling.
Before I dive into the fascinating detail released by Harley Davidson, I want to first take a moment to acknowledge the startups, innovators and pioneers of this sector.
Without the likes of early entrants Zero Motorcycles, Lightning, Energica and Brammo we simply wouldn’t have a niche world of madly obsessed electric motorcycle owners like myself. Even here in Australia, we have the likes of Savic doing their best to create a locally made full production electric motorcycle
They saw the opportunity. We saw the potential. Together, we have persevered.
However, I think they would all agree that this announcement is sensational news for electric motorcycling because it shows that massive scale and investment is starting to really flow into this sector. Leveraging the incredible strength of the fifth most recognizable global brand of Harley Davidson is just all good news.
Their fascinating investor presentation left me a little breathless over my morning coffee, revealing new model plans, partnerships I didn’t know about and some bullish projections about electric motorcycle market share.
As Jochen Zeitz, Chairman, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson said:
“Today’s announcement is a historic milestone with LiveWire set to become the first publicly traded EV motorcycle company in the U.S. By building on Harley-Davidson’s 118-year lineage, LiveWire’s mission is to be the most desirable electric motorcycle brand in the world, leading the electrification of the sport. This transaction will give LiveWire the freedom to fund new product development and accelerate its go-to-market model. LiveWire will be able to operate as an agile and innovative public company while benefitting from the at-scale manufacturing and distribution capabilities of its strategic partners, Harley-Davidson and KYMCO.”
A few of the key takeaways:
- Harley Davidson will retain 74% share in Livewire with partner AAE Bridges getting 17.3%, Taiwan based KYMCO will take 4.3% and Founders will retain 4.3%.
- An addressable market for electric motorcycles of $US20Billion, or 25% of the ICE motorcycle market by 2030
- Details of coming features including new apps, cellular connectivity, over the air updates and an all-new ”Arrow” architecture for middleweight machines
- The roadmap showing Harley Davidson Livewire (the original), Livewire One (current model), Livewire S2 (middleweight), Livewire S3 (lightweight KYMCO partner model) and Livewire S4 models (heavyweight model)
- The partnership with KYMCO (founded originally as a parts supplier to Honda) provides incredible manufacturing scalability opportunities
As a recent purchaser of a Harley Davidson Livewire, I couldn’t be more excited about this announcement.
I’m in on the ground level with my beloved Livewire but can now also see incredible vision, an exciting looking roadmap of product enhancements, all new models and financial backing and crucially, manufacturing scalability.
Scale is of course, the key to unlocking well-developed feature-packed, sophisticated and most critically affordable electric motorcycles – this is the move we need to make the transition real.
See also: I liked the electric Harley Livewire so much I bought one
And: EV Rider: Highway charging test on a 420km road trip with electric Livewire
Keyword: Harley Davidson to spin off electric Livewire in new public float