From the Harley Davidson sister company Live Wire (who just went live on the NYSE today) releases its newest model for pre-order with just a $100 bill out of your pocket. In our opinion Live Wire is following a similar method to another EV company we all know by the name of Tesla. By this I mean it's taking a proof of concept in example the origonal Harley Davidson Live Wire (now the Live Wire One) product with a price point that was very out of reach for most ($29,799 MSRP) then after proving their concept creating a more affordable price point of $16,999 for the S2. This is very comparable to what Tesla did as they first released the Model S and then the lessor of the two, more affordable, Model 3.
So what do you get for assentially half the price of the orignally released Live Wire One? You get a 110 HP motorcycle weighing 431lbs. and a whopping 184 ft-lbs of torque! Now adding that all up and given the nature of EV's you would bet a 0-60 time would be pretty snippy? And for sure it is at 3.1 seconds to 60mph, just .1 second shy from the Live Wire One. But what do you lose for half the price? Essentially you are losing miles per charge down about 50 miles and level three charging, so no fast charging options will be available.
Ready to recharge? As far as juicing up, the platform is a now a level 2 charger which means it can be charged at any EV charger you would typically charge your EV car. The downside is theres no level 3 charging option which probably helps with the cost of this motorcycle. Live Wire claims a 20-80% charge in 75 minutes. Again with no level 3 charge there is no fast charging option on this motorcycle like the Live Wire One. With that level 2 charger you can expect to see 110 miles city on one charge, and for most that will be enough, for others who want to spend their weekends in the mountains it will not and a Live Wire One could be a better fit for you.
Live Wire describes the all new design as a "Street Tracker" which gives us Cafe Racer enthusiasts some ideas on how we can make this EV even cooler down the road. Live Wire also mentions that the S2 platform will be making its way into other models more than just the Del Mar, which we can imagine a cruiser model is not too far from production.
In conclusion, the Live Wire Del Mar is a solid EV option and in our opinion if you don't need the extra miles as well as dont have an issue charging your EV over night this will be a great fit. Realistcally there shouldnt be a reason to pony up the extra spend for the Live Wire One (now $22K) for most buyers, but some still will.
We hope to get behind the bars but are waiting for a response from Live Wire and at that point we will update for our first ride impression. As far as on paper for $17K this seems like a pretty decent option for a customer in the EV motorcycle market but there are some other options like Zero you might want to take a look at.
(All photos taken from Live Wire)
Comments