Get Your Motor Runnin'
“What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” asked actress Mary Murphy to Marlon Brando in the classic biker film The Wild One. “Whaddaya got?” He replied with a slur. Motorcycles are loud. Motorcycles are rebellious. Well, not anymore, because the electric two-wheelers are coming.
The worldwide motorcycle market brought in over 110 billion dollars this year and the United States alone brings in over five billion a year in motorcycle sales. The average MSRP for a bike is around twelve grand as of last year. Unlike the brash and bold American market, the largest motorcycle markets in the world are all in Asia with India leading the pack with over 37 million motorcycles and mopeds in use. China comes in a close second with 34 million scooters on the roads.
Motorcycles are good on gas. Even the biggest Harley-Davidson gets an EPA-estimated 44 miles per gallon. But even the 119-year-old company that is the favorite brand of badass bikers has decided to go electric. The LiveWire all-electric bike was first displayed in 2014 with production models ready for preorder in 2019. The biggest controversy over the electric bike was its price, coming in at $30,000 MSRP.
GreenCars reported on Swiss rider Michael von Tell’s record of riding a LiveWire 1,071 miles in 24 hours in March 2020. Then in December 2021, Harley-Davidson announced that it was spinning off its LiveWire division as its own separate company which went public as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) valued at $1.77 billion.
Harley and LiveWire listened to the comments on price and have now debuted an entirely new model, the S2 Del Mar. The smaller, lighter e-bike will be offered as a production model at around $15,000 MSRP. The street tracker will produce 80 horsepower, weight less than 440 pounds, and have an EPA-estimated range of 100 miles. Zero to 60 miles per hour will happen in just 3.5 seconds.
Designed at LiveWire Labs in Mountain, View, California, the new bike is built around a new, scalable “ARROW” architecture using a proprietary battery, electric motor, charging, and control systems. The powertrain acts as the central component of the chassis and is modular so it can be adapted for future models.
Del Mar Launch Edition
LiveWire recently offered 100 serialized Del Mar Launch Edition models which come with an exclusive paint scheme and unique wheel design for $17,699 MSRP and all one-hundred units were sold out in just eighteen minutes. Delivery is expected in spring 2023.
For urban riders who missed out on the Launch Edition, LiveWire offers a waiting list for the $15,000 MSRP production model. The bike presents a street-tracker stance on 19-inch PCB cast-aluminum wheels and Dunlop DT1 tires. The Del Mar will be assembled at Harley-Davidson Vehicle Operations in York, Pennsylvania.
“The S2 Del Mar model represents the next step in the evolution of the LiveWire brand,” said Jochen Zeitz, Chairman, President, and CEO of Harley-Davidson. “The ARROW architecture underpinning the Del Mar, developed in-house at LiveWire Labs, demonstrates our ambition to lead in the EV space and establish LiveWire as the most desirable electric motorcycle brand in the world.”
What are you rebelling against, Johnny? Today, Marlon Brando’s scooter jockey character might have possibly answered, “Global warming.”
To learn more about the LiveWire S2 Del Mar Launch Edition motorcycle visit: livewire.com/delmar.
