Harley-Davidson stops creating all models except electric motorcycles

Harley-Davidson motorcycle company from Milwaukee is experiencing a bite of supply chain problems that have plagued major manufacturers for years. Now the company has been forced to suspend production of all its various motorcycles except LiveWire electric motorcycles.

And not only production stops. Deliveries have also been suspended.

As explained in the company, she decided to “suspend all assembly and delivery of cars, except for their electric motorcycles.

Going into more detail, HD says that “this decision, taken with great caution, is based on information provided by a third-party vendor to Harley-Davidson late Tuesday (May 17) regarding compliance with regulatory issues concerning an integral part of the vendor.”

While the part is probably common to most or all of the company’s gas-powered motorcycles, its LiveWire subbrand is fully electric and has minimal components with the company’s gas motorcycles.

Instead, Harley-Davidson has developed much of the important technology for its LiveWire motorcycles, including developing its own batteries and engines. In fact, much of the technology developed by HD engineers has begun to invest in other models in the brand’s family tree, such as the batteries used in Brand of electric bikes HD Serial 1.

The original Harley-Davidson LiveWire turned into LiveWire One when last year HD singled out LiveWire as a subbrand.

Harley-Davidson is now still coming down from highs the main electric motorcycle was unveiled last week.

LiveWire has abandoned the long-awaited electric motorcycle Del Mar, which has reduced the price of LiveWire from a high 22 thousand dollars for LiveWire One to a little more than 15 thousand dollars.

Del Mar is not as fast or powerful as LiveWire One, and doesn’t have as much range. But it should help the brand open the door to a wider range of riders, especially in key young riders who are not so easily won over by the legacy Harley lifestyle brand.

LiveWire Del Mar too built on a new platform known as the ARROW architecture. This platform was specifically designed by LiveWire to offer multiple motorcycles that use a single frame. Although in this case ARROW has not so much a frame as a structural battery.

The design is based on the structural body of the battery, which virtually replaces the traditional motorcycle frame. Other key components, such as the inverter, controller hardware, and on-board charger, were combined into a single unit and mounted on the outside of the structural battery. This charger supports Level 1 and Level 2 charging, but not fast DC charging like the flagship LiveWire One.

The battery uses 21700 battery cells inside the structural package to reduce the overall weight of the system and replace the need for excess frame.

The Del Mar electric motor uses direct drive instead of the complex but complex Revelation motor designed for LiveWire One.

While Harley-Davidson previously suspended the production of electric motorcycles, this longer two-week break for all its gas models is unprecedented in the electrical division. Electric motorcycles remain much more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts, but the key advantage in this case is that electric motorcycles are much easier to manufacture and maintain due to much fewer moving parts and fewer maintenance hassles.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube to get exclusive videos and subscribe to podcast.