Making the Harley LiveWire Look Inexpensive
NOVUS, a German electric motorcycle company, revealed its new electric motorcycle at the Consumer Electronics Show. While there’s plenty of stuff to talk about, let’s hit the big thing first. It costs a whopping $39,500. If you thought Harley’s LiveWire was expensive … well, okay it still is.
Forget the price for a moment and the NOVUS machine is actually pretty impressive. It features a sleek and artfully crafted carbon monocoque frame. This lightweight frame acts as the structure and the body for the bike. It gives it a futuristic but attractive look. The rest of the bike is mostly made of carbon fiber, too, including the front fork and rear swingarm.
Image from NOVUSThe specs are equally impressive. The bike has a direct-drive rear hub electric motor that puts out 148 lb-ft of torque. Because the bike weighs a superlight 85 pounds, it should be able to get to its top speed of 60 mph rather quickly.
Feeding that electric hub motor is a somewhat less impressive 14.4 kW hour battery. The battery can get the bike roughly 60 miles before its juice peters out.
Stupid Expensive
This is a bike for rich folks looking for a cool electric toy. It’s attractive and interesting, but it’s not a transportation solution for the vast majority of riders.
Many people were disappointed with the Harley LiveWire’s price and range. This bike is even more absurd in those respects. However, people weren’t expecting much from a motorcycle company they never even heard of, so this bike will avoid most of the harshest complaints.
Image from NOVUSElectric motorcycles have to get affordable and have better range before they’ll be viable transportation options. This is especially true in the U.S. The NOVUS bike is interesting. The carbon frame is cool. The bike looks great, but it’s more of a fancy science experiment than anything.