Here's the Electric Motorcycle Harley-Davidson Should Build, and It's Not a Cruiser

It's called a dirt bike, and it's the hottest market since Beanie Babies.

Photo by: Ralph Hermens

By: Jonathon Klein

May 5, at 7:06am ET

Comment

I have a lot of issues with the current corporate power fight that's raging inside Harley-Davidson. From (newly) activist investors, to those same investors not being able to spell Harley-Davidson correctly in their grievances. But one thing I do tend to agree with them on is that the situation at LiveWire is very not good.

In Harley-Davidson's most recent financial statements, LiveWire has continued hemorrhaging money—something it's done since its inception. And as of April of this year, it's only sold 33 motorcycles in 2025. And even if you look back at LiveWire's entire motorcycle sales to date, they're still only in the few hundreds of bikes sold.

That, dear friends, is untenable.

However, whereas those investors at H Partners Management and Purple Chip Capital want to rid the world of LiveWire, axing the entire division, I see another path. One that isn't as short-sighted or stupid as getting rid of the brand's research and development arm. No, LiveWire shouldn't die, but given the fact that Harley-Davidson has no real avenue into the youth market—Staycyc doesn't count, as it's not branded as a Harley, nor even is LiveWire's full-sized lineup—LiveWire could offer something far more meaningful and hot right now in the youth market.

You know what LiveWire should make? A dirt bike. One that has the same level of accessories as Harley's regular lineup. LiveWire, and indeed Harley-Davidson, needs a Sur-Ron competitor. Harley needs to revive the Peashooter nameplate.

Parroting a Stefon sketch, the hottest youth motorcycle market right now is electric dirt bikes. They're cheap, efficient, don't require a master's degree to fix, and won't piss off your neighborhood HOA. Kids love them as they're hooligan-encouraging machines, while parents love them since they get them out of the house and out into the world. They're also inexpensive to produce, with the industry average costing around $4,000.

And best of all, they breed motorcyclists. Something Harley-Davidson absolutely needs.

As I stated above, Harley doesn't have an entry-level motorcycle. The Motor Co's cheapest offering is still $10,000 and it's a 100-plus horsepower cruiser. That's not an entry-level anything. Likewise, though I'll scream it until I'm blue in the face, Harley refuses to bring its X440—a motorcycle developed with Hero—to the United States. And while many believed that LiveWire's S2 motorcycles would become the brand's entry into the company, those start at $16,000 and have no range. So the Milwaukee outfit is stuck without an offering and at a time when entry-level everything is hot, hot, hot!

Now, I wanted to propose this idea as I recently had the briefest of tastes of Zero's new XE and XB electric dirt bikes. It was more of a whiff of a taste, but this was right after I wrote my piece on the youths loving these EV dirt bikes. It solidified my position, as Zero will sell every single one it can build. Just as Sur-Ron, Talaria, Rawrr, and others do. That's the sort of market cap that Harley-Davidson desperately needs. And it's the market that LiveWire could offer.

The brand already has a US-based manufacturing facility, which would need retooling, as I propose Harley pairs down the S2 model range, kills the S1, and restructures that facility to make this EV dirt bike with a targeted price tag of $4,500.

More controversial, however, is that I believe it should be branded as a Harley-Davidson Peashooter.

For those who don't know Harley's history, the Peashooter was this bare-bones, single-cylinder homologation special. Our man Dustin Wheelan (RIP, just kidding, he works for those buttheads at Revzilla now) did a great breakdown on the Peashooter's history here, but the gist is that the American Motorcycle Association built a new race series in the 1920s, didn't at first invite Harley, who then turned up the second year with the now iconic Peashooter. It was simple, easy to ride, easy to work on, and got younger folks excited about motorcycling. Which is exactly what this EV Peashooter could be.

Imagine a world where this exists, but has the accessories support of Harley's regular motorcycles? Imagine having an 800-page accessories book just for the Peashooter? Imagine having the ability to have it come as a dirt bike, but with a few choice accessories, go full supermoto. There could be different handlebars, different batteries, different wheels and tires, different visual changes, headlights, brake lights, and everything would get the younger generation into the Harley-Davidson ecosystem before they're even legally allowed to start riding motorcycles on the street.

Imagine having that sort of captive audience.

I don't want to live in a world without Harley-Davidson. And I think that LiveWire has its use case. And it's this. Harley-Davidson could own the youth market. It could own the backyard-to-big-bike pipeline. It could reclaim its title as the world's most beloved motorcycle manufacturer. It needs an EV Peashooter ala a Sur-Ron. It needs this motorcycle.