Is Anyone Buying Harley-Davidson's Electric Motorcycles?

Earlier this month, Harley-Davidson announced its earnings for the first quarter of the year. That included details about the Livewire, the company’s recent foray into electric motorcycles. That information had two very alarming components to it: the first was that Livewire sales were down 72% relative to the first quarter of 2024. The second is just how many Livewires were sold in the first quarter of 2025, which is to say: 33. Not 33,000; not 3,300. Fewer than three dozen.

This continues a trend from the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Harley-Davidson sold 236 Livewires, down from 514 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Overall, the company sold 612 Livewires in 2024, down from 660 in 2023.

There are a few potential reasons for this. One is that for certain types of vehicles, the roar of an engine is part of the appeal. It could be a motorcycle; it could be a muscle car. Last year, when InsideHook spoke with Marko Lehtimaki, co-founder of the electric motorcycle company Verge, he mentioned “getting a lot of interest from Silicon Valley tech nerds who love the idea of riding a motorcycle.”

Another potential issue could be the result of an ongoing concern for EV adoption: infrastructure. A thread in the r/Harley subreddit revealed a number of motorcycle enthusiasts debating the pros and cons of the Livewire. One user brought up a recurring theme with electric vehicles of all types, pointing out that the charging infrastructure around them was lacking.

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This seems like it could be a more pronounced issue for motorcycle enthusiasts; if you have a Harley-Davidson, whether it’s gas-powered or electric, it’s probably not your commuting vehicle of choice.

As per Harley-Davidson, Livewire had a $20 million operating loss for the first quarter of this year. Jalopnik’s Brad Brownell pointed out in an analysis of Harley-Davidson’s recent report that the low sales numbers on Livewires were not indicative of a wider slump for the company as a whole. It raises a big question: given that reviews of the Livewire have been enthusiastic, is there anything more Harley-Davidson can do to get people to buy them?