Harley-Davidson recently reported its fourth quarter earnings and Hardwire plan results. Overall, the results were quite good, and we’ll sum them up in a later article. But the bigger news is about the upcoming LiveWire Del Mar.
LiveWire Del Mar
Jochen Zeitz哈雷的财报电话会议中,present Chief Executive Officer of both Harley-Davidson and LiveWire, said that the LiveWire brand would soon be releasing its next electric motorcycle called the “LiveWire Del Mar.” It will be a lighter, less expensive model than its present LiveWire One.
LiveWire’s Del Mar model (aka S2) will be the company’s first bike on the ARROW architecture.
ARROW Architecture
The new machine will be the first to use LiveWire’s scalable, modular ARROW architecture. Aninvestor’s document providesinformation about the new architecture, which was developed completely in-house.
A pictorial representation of LiveWire’s ARROW architecture.
The ARROW architecture includes the battery pack, electronics, and motor as primary chassis elements, which LiveWire says helps optimize efficiency, weight, performance, and cost. In addition, the setup incorporates the DC-DC converter, inverter, and wiring harness to reportedly reduce weight and size while reducing the number of microprocessors.
Del Mar battery
The bike’s battery uses high-volume 21700 cells. LiveWire says they “enable rapid adoption of multiple suppliers’ advancements.” LiveWire also thinks that the cells lend themselves to “flexible thermal management, meaning that cooling can be carried out by air, liquid, or “refrigerant.”
LiveWire’s stated key benefits of the ARROW architecture.
Motor
The motor is an in-house project as well. Its housing is “fully integrated into chassis and suspension to optimize space, stiffness, and weight while incorporating internal high-voltage connections. Like the battery, the motor can be “air or liquid-cooled, as needed per application.”
LiveWire also says the motor will have “increased power density with proprietary magnetics and direct-drive design.”
Power electronics
The Del Mar will have an integrated inverter and an onboard charger. In addition, they will share a cooling circuit that LiveWire says will minimize complexity, connections, the number of micro-processors, size, and mass. Its cooling system will be liquid or air-cooled.
What does the LiveWire Del Mar look like?
So what will the Del Mar look like? As you can see in the pictures from the investor’s presentation, they are not yet ready to say. But perhaps we can take a few guesses at what the Del Mar might look like from previous Harley-Davidson design drawings.
The S2 Del Mar slots in just under the current LiveWire One model.
As shown in this investor document slide, LiveWire says that its S2 models will extend the company’s portfolio to a range of middleweight applications. If we go back to some of Harley-Davidson’s previous design drawings, there’s one design model that fits into the middleweight segment.
Harley-Davidson once touted this design model as its next smaller, more affordable electric bike. So could this be what the LiveWire S2 Del Mar could look like?
Could the new bike’s name give away what the new LiveWire model will look like? After all, the Del Mar, California horse racing track has, over the years, hosted a fair amount of flat track racing events.
That connection would seem to make sense since “Del Mar” means “of the sea,” and there’s little about electric motorcycles that correlate to the sea.
生龙活虎的S3和S4
LiveWire is also planning other models for the future. The investor document shows LiveWire S3 and S4 models. LiveWire S3 models are shown as “Scaling down the ARROW architecture to a platform of lightweight 2-wheelers; partnering with Kymco. So it seems that Kymco will take a larger role in the S3 models, potentially LiveWire scooters?
As for S4 models, the investor documents says that they will be:
“Leveraging latest technologies to address heavyweight motorcycles with expected improvements in range and charging capabilities.”
That’s a somewhat cryptic description that really doesn’t give much away. At first blush, it seems like the S4 bikes could be an updated tech version of more traditional heavyweight bikes.
Manufacturing
When the Del Mar does make it to production, it, along with the LiveWire ONE and future LiveWire S1 bikes, will be exclusively assembled at Harley-Davidson’s facility in York, PA, for at least an initial five-year period. Beyond that, manufacturing could move elsewhere.
Since the deal to spin-out the LiveWire brand also includes current scooter manufacturer Kymco, it’s quite possible that manufacturing could move to Asia once the five-year period has elapsed.
Good things ahead
Ultimately, it’s becoming clear that LiveWire and Harley-Davidson are planning big things for the LiveWire brand. As electrically powered two-wheel transportation becomes more common, LiveWire is setting itself up for success and believes that it will become a key player in the electrically powered two-wheeler industry.
