What’s the Price on This One?
The electric revolution for motorcycles could be the basis for Harley’s rebirth. The company totally bungled the LiveWire in the eyes of many, but this electric flat track concept looks friggin awesome. Harley recently released some updated design images for the motorcycle.
The one at the top of this article is the most recent, though I kind of like the image shown above, which is a little older and more of a sketch. The idea of this bike is a great idea. Flat track bikes are killer machines and just the kind of thing that Harley needs to spice up its lineup. The fact that it’s electric is also smart because it is a logical next step after the LiveWire.
The biggest issue with this is the same that the LiveWire has. It’s range versus price. LiveWire’s math simply doesn’t work. $30k for about 100 miles of range is not good enough. This bike has to be more affordable and offer about the same range.
This bike is seen as a middleweight motorcycle for the brand. Some folks are calling it a mid-range electric bike. I hope that’s just a term and not a suggestion that the bike would have less range than the LiveWire. This bike doesn’t work if it gets only like 60 to 70 miles per charge unless you can charge it in something like 10 minutes.
I want Harley to succeed. I’ve accepted that they’re going to be putting out plenty of electric bikes in the future, and I think it may be a smart long-term move. However, the bikes have to make sense when it comes to range versus price or they can forget it, no matter how cool this flat track racing-inspired bike looks.