Harley-Davidson will make an electric motorcycle in 5 years
Harley-Davidson wasn’t just fooling around when it showed off its electric Project LiveWire motorcycle. In a chat with the Milwaukee Business Journal, the bike maker’s Sean Cummings says that there will be an electric Harley within the next 5 years. That’s 2021, if you want to mark your calendar. He’s not giving any clues as to what this e-bike will entail, but it probably won’t resemble the 2014-era LiveWire.
As our Autoblog colleagues point out, the biggest challenge is maximizing range. The LiveWire concept only got 60 miles on a charge at best, which just won’t cut it when you’re riding to Sturgis. Harley doesn’t have the luxury of a large car floor to hold its battery packs — it has to cram a lot of cells into a narrow space without making the bike ugly or unmaneuverable. A cruiser may make more sense than a street bike.
Having said this, the very fact that Harley is planning a production e-bike is noteworthy. This is a brand that’s virtually synonymous with loud, roaring gas engines. Clearly, it believes there’s enough interest in the idea (or at least, enough pressure from an eco-conscious society) that it’s worth bucking expectations.
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