ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
General Category => Electric Motorcycle News => Topic started by: manlytom on September 05, 2013, 03:57:41 PM
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Harley considering an Electric !?
As a Harley rider (ex) I met with some senior people of HD showing them my Zero. I got interesting feedback. The young product development guy was very interested, the old one did not want to go near my "monster". The MD simple asked: "would you sell your Harley?" "Is it more than a utility to you ?" Obviously he was relating to the community spirit that HD lives from.
Anyway, the rest is history for me.... ;) A rebel without the noise...
http://pursuitist.com/harley-davidson-building-entry-level-motorcycle-considering-electric-model/ (http://pursuitist.com/harley-davidson-building-entry-level-motorcycle-considering-electric-model/)
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I have been hearing rumors that H-D has been investigating electric motorcycles for the past 3 years, but I don't think they have a real development program in the works. If they can ever figure out how to make an electric V-twin electric motor that goes "potato, potato, potato", my guess is that they will buy out an established electric motorcycle company (let me see, I wonder what e-bike company might be available for sale ::) ), as they have done in the past when they wanted to offer new products, such as a trike or a sport bike, and put the bar and shield on those bikes. Keep in mind that H-D has been doing this sort of thing for years, the most (relatively) successful merging being Armacchi (sorry about the spelling) during the early 1960's that brought you the 250 and 350 Sprint and later some forgettable small 2-strokes during the 1970's. Their most recent purchase of MV didn't work out all that well, though. And the Buell thing didn't have such a great outcome, either.
Right now, I don't see H-D going into the electric motorcycle/scooter market. The market is way too small for them, the third-world (like India) can't afford electric vehicles (and the country does not have a reliable electric power system) and the H-D faithful isn't ready for a quiet motorcycle. (Note that the Topper, Scat, Blast, etc. models are not around any more. Only the V-twins soldier on, so why take the risk? H-D is interested in making money, not saving the environment. :o )
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hi Richard
good points. Out of all MC companies HD is the one that has the least product overlap with the Electrics (like ours...). Buyers of Zeros often have a cruiser or big bike as well. For Australia I tried to find out if HD would sell Zero's "on the side" through their network of stores... as this would give a service network to backup Zero much better second time around here...
Obviously you are spot on - if there is not enough money in it - they won't go there ....
A V-twin - here we go:
The Juicer 36V that Harlan sells... love it
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458756167565753&set=a.458756144232422.1073741828.334086326699405&type=1&theater (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458756167565753&set=a.458756144232422.1073741828.334086326699405&type=1&theater)