Harley-Davidson Project LiveWire unveiled: Innovation meets heritage

The Harley-Davidson (HD) brand name has always been associated with big, butch motorcycles with heartbeat-skipping exhaust notes. The legendary company has just announced their first foray into electric bikes with Project LiveWire. This marks the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle to feature an all-electric engine.

There’s still a long way to go before Project LiveWire goes into production. Harley-Davidson is organising a tour called the “Experience Tour”, which will kick off in the US and will continue across Canada and Europe. The tour will allow bikers to test ride the LiveWire and give their feedback to HD so they can improve and fine tune the ride till it makes it to production.

The styling of LiveWire is distinctly Harley. It’s a single-seater motorcycle and is highly compact in order to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible. We don’t have the official specification from HD just yet but Wired managed to get some numbers and even a first ride. The LiveWire offers 74 horsepower and 52 foot-pounds of torque with a top speed of 92mph (148kmph).

The bike sues a lithium-ion battery with a range of 53 miles. It takes about 3.5-hours to charge it fully at 220v.

The LiveWire obviously doesn’t have the deep-throated rumblings of traditional Harley’s either. Instead, “it starts off quietly, then builds in pitch and volume as the bike gains speed. It’s louder than you’d think, and though it’s not going to set off any car alarms, it’ll definitely make you smile,” according to Wired.