Harley-Davidson has finally disclosed the full tech spec sheet for their debut electric motorcycle, Livewire.
We knew that the first electric Harleys would arrive in 2020, but until now, Milwaukee has been rather secretive as to what the bike can do. After revealing the detailed technical specifications of their electric machine, we have to admit we’re a bit disappointed. Not that we had high hopes for the Livewire, though…
The electric Bar and Shield beast is a lot tamer than we expected, rated for a peak 105 HP and 116.6 Nm, which aren’t exactly specs to write home about. Of course, all the torque and power is on tap, being an electric motorcycle, but H-D could definitely have done better.
Battery-wise, the Livewire packs a total of 15.5 kWh of which a minimum of 13.6 kWh are usable, and the full-charge juice is enough for 113 km of highway riding at a rather modest 70 mph (112 km/h). Riding in the urban environment yields around 235 km, which is more on the decent side.
We knew that Livewire would no excel in range right off the bat, but we can’t seem to understand exactly why. There are a lot of H-D customers in Europe, where the legal highway speed is 130 km/h (~81 mph), and that’s without taking Germany in consideration, where most highways don’t have a speed limit whatsoever. We guess that Livewire’s range falls well short of their expectations, and this might be a problem for Milwaukee…
AC wall charging reportedly takes a rather long 12.5 hours, while fast DC charging should take around 1 hour, but these figures still need official confirmation.
All lighting is, of course, LED, and Livewire comes with a 4.3” color TFT display with a ton of info available, including Bluetooth connectivity for smartphones and turn-by-turn navigation, music and calls.
Livewire has a cast aluminium frame and swingarm and boasts top-notch Showa suspensions. The fork is a fully-adjustable 43 mm Inverted Separate Function Forks-Big Piston (SFF-BP) unit, complemented in the rear by a Balance Free Rear Cushion Lite (BFRC-lite). The split 5-spoke cast aluminium rims come with a 120/70 ZR17 front tire and a 180/55 ZR17 rear one, both Michelin Scorcher Sport.
The braking system uses dual 4-piston monoblock radial mount fore and dual-piston aft calipers, squeezing floating rotors. Livewire tips the scales at a decent 249 kg and has a rather hefty price (considering the modest specs) of $29,799. Let’s see how Harley’s debut electric motorcycle fares after sales start.