Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz: Future is all-electric

Where Brussels has already taken the decision to ban combustion engines in the automotive industry, the motor industry is still out of luck for the time being, but the day will of course come when the transition to electric motors will also have to be made.

Among the established brands, Harley-Davidson pioneered and, after years of crossing many continents with a driving prototype to gather as much feedback as possible, launched its very first electric motorcycle in 2019: LiveWire.

In terms of driving performance, the reactions were generally very positive, but not everyone was charmed by the serious price tag of € 34,000. And so it was not a storm in terms of sales.

Two years after its launch, Harley-Davidson announced it would split LiveWire as a brand, rebranding the bike as LiveWire One. Exactly the same bike, but with a different logo on the tank and a considerably more competitive price tag of ‘only’ $21,999 in the United States, where it was initially exclusively for sale.

Last year, the second model was the S2 Del Mar launched, initially in May as a limited Launch Edition, followed by a normal production run with pre-orders starting later that year.

In addition to the S2, which should be seen as an electric mid-range motorcycle, Harley has two more models in the pipeline with LiveWire: the S3 lightweight, which is being developed in collaboration with Kymco for urban use, and the S4 electric heavyweight, in the trend of the fat Harleys like the ones built in Milwaukee for over 100 years.

At the time, Harley stated that the reason for splitting off from LiveWire was to be able to separate the production lines completely. The existing production facilities for Harley’s with popping V-twins and a new factory for electric LiveWire motorcycles. This also created the idea that the combustion engine is still here to stay for the time being.

In an interview with American design magazine Dezeen, Harley-Davidson Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz has now said that Harley-Davidson is now transitioning to going fully electric at some point. Zeitz did indicate that it was not going overnight and did not mention any goals or time, but stated that the transition has already been initiated at this time.

“At some point in the future, Harley-Davidson will be all-electric,” Zeitz told Dezeen. “However, it’s a long-term transition that needs to happen. It’s not something you do overnight.”

“When you look at the past 120 years, the company has always evolved, it has never stood still,” Zeitz told Dezeen. “Just as our founders in their day were trying to invent or reinvent something that was unique, that’s clearly something we need to do now as a company.”

“What we’re doing is celebrating our past, but also evolving the brand at the same time. It’s a natural evolution that needs to happen.” According to Zeitz, the transformation also means that Harley will have to start targeting people who don’t normally ride heavy bikes and even those who don’t ride at all.

“I believe in major transformational changes for iconic brands, that’s something I’ve been doing all my life. We’re targeting different customer profiles – you have the traditional customer, you have the contemporary customer and you have dreamers who tend to want to drive or maybe just dreaming about the brand.”

Zeitz does emphasize that although the transition has now started, it will be some time before the very last Harley with a combustion engine rolls off the production line.

“We’re thinking, ‘How do we evolve if you really think long-term,’ because this isn’t going to happen overnight. That will take decades, won’t it?”

“However, you also have to think in decades rather than thinking in a specific year and the short-term thinking that everyone in a public company is exposed to. We have to think about the transition and preparing for that transition is why LiveWire was born.”

Source: Dezeen