It is quite tough to imagine an all-electric Harley-Davidson stable. Still, the iconic motorcycle brand’s plans to lose the tailpipe on all their models were recently confirmed by Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz. Though Harley-Davidson purists need not mourn the loss of the iconic V-twin rumble yet as Zeitz also shared that while the shift to full-electric is inevitable, this process will probably take decades to complete.

Harley-Davidson initially tried to get its feet wet in the EV industry by introducing the LiveWire electric motorcycle in 2014. In 2021, Harley-Davidson made LiveWire a sub-brand of the company to produce a separate electric motorcycle line-up, starting with the original LiveWire (USD 30,000) being sold as the significantly more affordable (USD 21,999) LiveWire One.

In May of last year, it introduced the S2 Del Mar under the LiveWire badge. The S2 Del Mar was the first model to be launched in their S2 series, which they consider their mid-weight segment. Also in the pipeline is the introduction of the lightweight S3 series, which will be developed in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturing giant KYMCO. It is said that KYMCO will also be coming out with its electric motorcycles using the S3 platform.

It would seem that EVs are all the rage these days, and Harley-Davidson’s concrete plans to go all-electric refutes the brand's inability to adapt to shifting market forces, as others have opined.  Yet, in doing so, what does Harley-Davidson stand to gain if the brand could potentially lose its soul?