Get ready for the next generation in made-in-America electric motorcycles! LiveWire, the Harley-Davidson spin-off company that focuses on battery bikes, is going to launch an all-new machine on May 10.
News of a new electric LiveWire doesn’t come as a shocker. Even before Harley-Davidson spun LiveWire off on its own, we knew of a new bike coming in roughly this timeframe, probably called the Del Mar. The official teaser video above recently confirmed the imminent launch, but Harley-Davidson talked about about this bike in its investor meetings months ago. Now, the LiveWire website promises the S2 Del Mar LE.
From the very start, we expected this machine to come in at a lower price than the Harley-Davidson LiveWire (which cost $37,250 at its 2019 release) and the subsequent LiveWire One. Those machines were aimed at big-money buyers, and while the new Del Mar will no doubt be a premium motorcycle, it seems the intention is to reduce cost while improving the bike’s performance in various ways, and appealing to a new sub-section of buyers.
The Del Mar name itself is a callback to California’s Del Mar racetrack, a legendary West Coast facility with roots back in the 1930s—if you can believe it, the track was actually founded with Bing Crosby’s support, as a horse-racing track. Later, the Marines used it as a training base during World War II; since then, it’s been the epicenter of flat track racing’s 20th century revival.
To Canadians, the name might not mean much, but to American riders, particularly on the West Coast, this is a very powerful bit of branding, and it matches with the flat track nostalgia that Harley-Davidson peddled for years with the Street series. It seems like LiveWire is going to take the same tack, and if you watch the video above, not only do you get vintage tracker action, you can also see a brief, blurry glimpse of the new bike, and see what appears to be a contemporary take on flat tracker bodywork …
