Several electric motorcycles, a trail, a streetfighter Harley-Davidson's plans are promising

2023 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 02:44

These are times of change for Harley-Davidson. The Milwaukee firm is materializing what its next steps will be to establish itself as a brand of the future and for this they are going to change both their range of motorcycles and the way they are sold.

After several years losing market share and leaving a few workers behind, in addition to taking part of its production from the United States if Donald Trump's trade war against Europe continues, a lot is going to change Harley-Davidson. The Electric LiveWire Coming in 2019, and will be accompanied by a range of electric motorcycles, new custom, the irruption in the adventure trail world and other novelties to increase the audience they can reach.

"More roads for Harley-Davidson": An ambitious long-term strategy

One of the problems of Harley-Davidson is that due to the structure of the range until recently, the novice motorists could not access their motorcyclesEither by not having the necessary card, by not being trained or by the economic barrier that supposes a price positioned on the premium side of the scale.

When we all believed that Harley-Davidson was going to announce the departure of its production from the United States, it has surprised us with a flood of news.

To solve this, Harley-Davidson will introduce a new range of models based on the principles of accessibility with small displacement motorcycles, from 250 to 500 cc placed below the current Street and primarily intended initially for Asian markets, specifically seeking growth in India and its very powerful motorcycle market with 17.7 million motorcycles sold in 2016.

On the other hand we find the excessive limitation of Harley-Davidson models to the custom style. In its quest to open the spout to other customers, the American brand will debut a new modular platform capable of using engines from 500 cc to 1,250 cc sharing development costs and allowing customers who would not have considered a Harley before now can.

In total, this new modular range will have four different engines with models divided into three different segments, including the striking Harley-Davidson Pan America. It is a trail-cut motorcycle that does not renounce the hallmarks of the firm with a 1,250 cc two-cylinder engine and a design reminiscent of the Road Glide, for the first adventurer-style motorcycle of the brand.

In addition to this unusual-looking trail adventurer, Harley-Davidson also has a new 1,250cc Custom model (predictably the same engine as the Pan America) similar to the current Fat Bob and another striking bike for the turn towards a much sportier world than we have known so far.

The new Harley-Davidson models will arrive in 2020, accompanied until 2022 with the arrival of new versions complementary to their main novelties.

The disappearance of the previous Harley-Davidson XR1200R that were the maximum exponent of sportsmanship among Milwaukee motorcycles and more recently the goodbye of the Muscle, Harley-Davidson has felt the need to enter the most radical segment, so it will debut a new Streetfighter cut bike.

This new bike would have a considerably less retro bodywork, with hard lines, a well-marked muscular deposit and a pointed tail reduced to a minimum. Your engine will be a bicilíndrico in vee but in this case of 975 cc with a more cheerful behavior and accompanied by sports suspensions and brakes with radial anchor calipers in the front axle.

But the highlight of what he has prepared for us will come in the segment of the electric motorcycles. We have known for a long time that Harley-Davidson LiveWire Electric will arrive in 2019 with the support of Alta Motors in a format quite similar to the prototype that H-D still sports today in the photos that accompany its statement.

But it will not come alone. The catalog of electric motorcycles without clutch that Harley-Davidson has called twist and go will be progressively extended until 2022 placing the brand as one of the benchmarks in the electric motorcycle industry.

In your case, these models will be lighter, smaller and more accessible to favor the arrival (once again) of new customers or reaching sectors hitherto intact by the American firm. This approach, based on the sketches shown, wants to rival medium-displacement utility motorcycles and even scooters with a model close to that of an electric bicycle such as the Nuuk that we recently tested.

All of these ambitious Harley-Davidson plans have one goal and it is none other than ensure financial viability of a brand more than a hundred years old. The strategy proposes a horizon with 250 million dollars of investment until 2022 to achieve an increase in annual income of more than 1,000 million dollars.