WHEN THE HEADLINE DOESN’T MATCH THE ARTICLE: Harley-Davidson Will Soon Be All-Electric, CEO Says.
[Jochen] Zeitz’s pronouncement seems guaranteed to make a not-insignificant portion of the manufacturer’s customer base cringe. For many enthusiasts, the thing that really sets a Harley apart from other motorcycles—American-made or otherwise—is a thunderously loud internal combustion engine. But the company knows that no matter how important those large-displacement mills might be change is on the horizon.
Harley purists can take solace in the fact that the internal combustion engine seems safe for the immediate future. The brand may have been one of the first major motorcycle companies to release an all-electric model, but it plans to ease its way into electrification. The kind of evolution that Zeitz envisions for the company and its motorcycles will take time.
“It takes decades, right?” he said to the website. “But you have to also think in decades rather than just thinking about what year and the short-termism that everyone is exposed to as a public company. We have to think about the transition, and preparing for that transition is why LiveWire was born.”
Will the big electric choppers at least have a Jetsons-style bleebling sound as they zoom past?