A Charging Issue
Today it has come out that Harley-Davidson has suspended production of the LiveWire. The motorcycle has experienced some kind of issue during charging. The issue wasn’t disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal, reported first that it is a charging issue that has halted production.
It’s unclear what this means for Harley. The company was counting on the LiveWire to kickstart the revamp of the brand and start its outreach to new riders. “This is disappointing for all of us,” Michelle Kumbier, the company’s chief operating officer, wrote in a memo.
The company has asked customers who have the bike to not use a home outlet for charging. The only charger they’re supposed to use is a charger that is at dealers or one like it. All this comes as the bike hits dealerships and is being delivered widely to those customers who have placed a pre-order.
Those customers who have placed pre-orders are older customers than Harley was targeting, according to recent reports. So, it seems that the LiveWire isn’t attracting the kinds of buyers Harley was hoping for already, and this can’t help the company’s quest to find a new demographic. It’ll be interesting to see how Harley handles this in the coming weeks. The company is investigating the charging issues currently, and I’ll let you know when there’s more info.