Report: Harley-Davidson confirms electric motorcycle plans

After a couple years of teasing the public with their LiveWire concept, Harley-Davidson has supposedly confirmed their plans to build an electric motorcycle.

In an interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal (we saw it on Asphalt & Rubber), a Senior VP from Harley-Davidson told a reporter the manufacturer plans an electric model within five years. For now, they’re working on using feedback from riders to help them design the bike. Presumably, the information they’ve gathered from the LiveWire demo tours is being used to help develop the machine. Harley-Davidson’s also been on a hiring spree, signing up electric vehicle designers in recent months, so they’ve been putting the pieces of this puzzle in place for a while.

This news is interesting, because we haven’t seen much about Harley-Davidson’s electric vehicle plans for several months. The last we’d really heard on the subject was that the MoCo figured battery technology still wasn’t where it needed to be, in order for them to offer an affordable bike. It sounds, though, as if the ongoing improvements in the EV world, combined with market pressure (competitor Victory now builds an electric superbike) have convinced Harley-Davidson it’s time to step forward into the future.

Presumably, that future machine will be considerably different from the LiveWire concept bike that so many Harley-Davidson faithful have had the chance to ride already. That machine was designed by Mission, who’s no longer in the business of electric motorcycles. Whether the model Harley-Davidson eventually debuts will follow that motorcycle’s naked bike styling, or return to Harley-Davidson’s traditional cruiser styling, will be interesting to see.