Amidst Slumping Sales, Harley-Davidson Announces Plans for Electric Motorbike in a Bid to Win over Millennials

Ever since the LiveWire Project that was announced in 2014, rumours of an electric motorbike being produced by Harley-Davidson has been flying around. In the LiveWire tour in 2014 and 2015, they “brought out a fleet of electric Harley-Davidson electric motorcycles to really understand what the public thought of it, what they wanted and what their expectations would be.”

Electric Motorbike in the Works:

While it is true that the Milwaukee brand has some die-hard fans, they cannot rely on their existing consumers alone, especially when sales have been on the decline. One way would, of course, be to appeal to the millennials of today, but this is evidently no easy task. Read more about the millennials

This is where bringing an electric motorbike to production comes in.

According to Harley-Davidson’s product portfolio manager Jeff Strunk, they had taken away quite some valuable lessons through their LiveWire Project.

“We learned a lot from those customers in rides that we did all around the world. We took in a lot of feedback and we’re certainly utilising that to make a great Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle. It is coming in in 18 months and it’s gonna be really exciting.” He said with confidence.

(Image taken from Harley-Davidson)

As quoted from an interview with The Street, the CEO of Harley Davidson, Matt Levatich, has also confirmed that they are working towards their electrifying goal. “We are progressing to that plan and we are excited about that product. We continue to see electric vehicles as a tremendous opportunity,” he explained.

“These motorcycles are easier to ride than bicycles, they lend themselves to urban environments where our product is maybe less targeted or less suited. They are suited to a generation of people that don’t have the mechanical depth of experience that maybe boomers had with manual transmissions and clutches.”

In other words, the electric motorcycle will be geared specifically towards a younger audience, and it will be rooted towards what the riders want.

“Getting the product to match customer expectations; that’s what our engineers are working on right now and we’re super excited about it,” Strunk revealed.

If the company comes out with a quality electric bike and further boosts the product with proper marketing, this could give them the turnaround they need.

Other methods Harley-Davidson picked up on to acquire more customers include enabling rider training through the Harley-Davidson Riding Academy, expanding their range of products and simulating a riding experience with their sprawling display at the JumpStart Motorcycle Experience.