We’ve been waiting for years with bated breath for details regarding Harley-Davidson’s next upcoming LiveWire electric motorcycle. Now we’re getting the first real crumbs along with a short teaser video, plus an officially announced unveiling date of May 10th.
LiveWire, the all-electric sub-brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has been hard at work on a second model to follow the flagship LiveWire One electric motorcycle, first rolled out as the Harley-Davidson LiveWire back in 2018.
From investor documents and previous statements from the company, we’ve known that the upcoming model would be referred to as either the S2 or the Del Mar (or some combination), and that it would be a middleweight motorcycle.
That likely means it will be designed to be more approachable to a wider range of riders, both physically and financially. The bike is likely to be somewhat toned down compared to the LiveWire One, which rocks an impressive 100 horsepower and a top speed that is electronically limited to 110 mph (177 km/h).
The upcoming LiveWire Del Mar, which signs point to as the likely name, would thus likely have slightly reduced power and perhaps a lower top speed, helping it compete more directly with middleweight electric motorcycles like the Zero FXE.
Now we’re getting our first tiny clues about the upcoming new Harley electric motorcycle in the form of the teaser video below.
The video highlights flat track racing, which aligns with previous design sketches of a flat tracker-inspired motorcycle.
Of course these design sketches are several years old at this point and so the final design of the LiveWire Del Mar will likely be significantly updated.
But we do know that Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire division has developed a modular electric motorcycle platform known as Arrow that will allow the company to build several motorcycles on the same basic chassis, which can be seen in both the older design sketches and new patent images.
So it stands to reason that while the aesthetics of the upcoming Del Mar may have changed, the basic design and architecture is likely similar to what we see in the original design sketches below.
Rolling out a more approachable and more affordable middleweight electric motorcycle is key to Harley’s larger goals of scooping up a dominant share of the electric motorcycle market, both stateside and abroad.
The company has said that it expects to sell 100,000 electric motorcycles by 2026, which is a lofty target based on current figures and the company’s current lineup of one model, even if that model is pretty darn awesome.
There are still some major questions hanging out there though regarding H-D’s next electric motorcycle. What are the specs? What is the price? When will it be available?
Plus the design is still incredibly open-ended. ADVrider’s Mike Botan pointed out that a screen grab of a brief view of a bike in the teaser video (seen below) shows the rear of what could be the new Del Mar.
A closer look shows that it definitely isn’t the LiveWire One due to the simplified swingarm, but it also doesn’t appear to match any Del Mar concept art or design sketches we’ve seen so far.
With so many unknowns still hanging in the air, the number of questions we have outweighs the number of facts we know.
With any luck, we’ll have answers to all of these questions and more on May 10th.
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Author: Micah Toll
Source: Electrek
