Their reasoning seems to be gimmickry. I've read several excerpts that state that they are considering this because the "young crowd is demanding eco-friendly vehicles". This is a terrible reason to just build an electric vehicle.
I think they need to take a cue from Tesla and make it all about the neat features that Electric vehicles can provide, such as quicker acceleration, no transmission, etc. Just my 2 cents anyways.
An electric motorcycle is the complete opposite of what Harley sells and how it succeeds.
Interesting that a company that's succeeded by selling... old technology is attempting to innovate again.
The V-Rod(attempt at innovation) was met meekly.
Buell, where they actually innovated, shut down a few years ago.
Harley Riders don't want innovation and change. They want noise and an image.
The 'young crowd' wants cheap bikes made to look tough and vintage. Hence the redesigning and marketing of the Sportster(entry model).
The rockstar lawyers want big heavy cruisers that can carry their leather shells loudly across the country.
Good luck to them. They'll have some pretty tough competition from Mission Motorcycles, Brammo, Yamaha, KTM and countless others.
Electric motorcycles are undoubtedly the future, but bikes are totally different vehicles than cars. They have very different use cases (recreation vs. utility), and riding on public roads comes with outrageous risks. I've been riding since my teens, and finally sold my road bike in order to preserve my life. I only do track days and regional racing now to get my riding fix.
Electric bikes will have an advantage in areas that gas bikes are weak, such as noise and emissions. For the road, battery technology needs to get much cheaper to compete with gas. In terms of performance, nothing beats an electric drivetrain. The only issue is with the massive weight of the current gen battery packs.
KTM electric dirt bike:
Although I would love to own such a e-motorcycle for daily commuting, as an avid cand daily cyclist I getting more and more afraid of all electric vehicles.
Until now I could usually rely on the fact that motorised vehicles are loud enough so that I can hear even when I can not see them. But with all these new e-vehicles it might happen that they are almost completely silent at low speeds so I as a biker would loose half of my senses. I rely so much on vehicle sounds while riding bike that I feel almost feel blind when I wear headphones and listen to music while riding bike.
So I hope that all those new vehicle will make at least some sound when they drive on the same road as I do.
They'll probably need to make it louder. Without noise, a motorcycle isn't very intimidating.
The booming sound let's everyone know it's coming. It could probably be called a safety feature.
How's it going to make noise? pot-atoe-pot
> sounds like a jet engine turbine
Well, so much for the hope it might quiet down the disruption from at least some Harley riders.
Where I live, the noise from them is simply awful. I wish the noise ordinances would be enforced against them. Very selfish people, who inflict that upon the neighborhoods they ride through.
Plenty of other bikes perform just fine while keeping noise to tolerable levels.