This year has been one that’s full of weird industry surprises. Buell isn’t going to make an electric motorcycle and Smart makes 600 HP SUVs now. Here’s another one you didn’t have on your bingo sheet. Harley-Davidson’s electric brand is about to make some super cute and colorful scooters with help from scooter giant Kymco. Yes, that Harley-Davidson is developing a pastel-colored electric commuter scooter and a butch off-road electric scooter, these things look like they’re going to be pretty sweet.
The International Motorcycle and Accessories Exhibition (EICMA) show in Milan has ended, but news is still flowing hot out of Italy. This year, we’ve seen that Honda is putting a fantastic electric compressor-boosted V3 into production and Royal Enfield has finally pulled the wraps off of its electric motorcycle project. There’s some more big news and it’s coming from an unlikely source.
Harley-Davidson, through its electric motorcycle spin-off brand LiveWire, is getting into maxi-scooters. But these aren’t just any scooters. Just look at them, these are about the exact opposite of the typical Bar and Shield fare, and that’s pretty neat.
LiveWire’s road thus far has been a bumpy one. In 2019, Harley-Davidson launched the LiveWire electric motorcycle. I got to ride it back then and thought it was a masterpiece, but its $29,799 price tag was frankly ridiculous. In 2021, Harley-Davidson announced it was going to spin off the whole electric division as its own company and the lights came on at LiveWire in 2022. LiveWire went public that September. The old LiveWire motorcycle became the LiveWire One.
Since then, LiveWire has been trying hard to get Americans on its electric steeds. The LiveWire One’s price dropped (it’s currently $22,799) and then it launched two more a bit more affordable electric motorcycles on its scalable platform. I am a fan of LiveWire’s machines, but even the cheaper new bikes cost $15,499 and up.
Paying high prices for what you get remains a problem across the industry right now and as I’ve reported recently, not all brands have been able to weather the storm. LiveWire is also struggling. The company lost $85 million in 2022, $125 million in 2023, and is on track to lose another $115 million this year. All of this is happening while the brand sells fewer than 700 electric motorcycles a year.
The company has taken some hits, but it’s not out for the count yet. Back in 2022, LiveWire partnered up with Taiwanese scooter giant Kymco as part of a merger with the AEA-Bridges Impact Corporation. As part of the merger, Harley-Davidson and Kymco tossed in $100 million each, with Harley keeping 74 percent equity in the company and Kymco getting 4 percent.
LiveWire said it would use that cash infusion to help get products to market and to help develop new machines. Kymco also has plans to use LiveWire’s scalable Arrow architecture for its RevoNEX motorcycle, which was also revealed at EICMA. Now, we’re getting to see what Kymco’s investment in LiveWire is building.
The first of the pair is a street-based maxi-scooter that’s sort of in the style of something like a Suzuki Burgman 650. Assuming the S2 platform underneath is largely untouched, we could be talking about 84 HP here, which is downright brutal for a scooter. If LiveWire keeps the taps turned up, this scooter would outrun the already bonkers Italjet Dragster 559 and its 58.33 HP.
It gets even cooler, the S2 platform, which currently underpins the S2 Mulholland cruiser and the S2 Del Mar street tracker, punches out up to 194 lb-ft of torque, can hit 99 mph, travel around 70 miles on backroads with its 10.5 kWh nominal battery, and can hit 60 mph in just 3.3 seconds. Even the platform’s continuous power rating of 40 HP is great. These specs aren’t spectacular for a motorcycle, but a scooter? They should be a total blast.
The other scooter shown as part of the launch here is an adventure scooter. In recent years the adventure segment has exploded in popularity with the sales to match. Some brands, most notably Honda, have capitalized on the sensation by building butch, off-road capable adventure scooters. The LiveWire creation follows the trend with a cute scooter with knobby tires, sizable crash bars, and lots of structures to mount things onto.
This scooter also rides on the S2 platform, which could mean this one might also be way faster than any scooter needs to be. At the same time, it’s known that Kymco helped LiveWire develop these scooters, but it’s not said exactly what the Kymco team brought to the scoots. That may also impact what the final result rides like.
Sadly, LiveWire is tight-lipped about these machines right now. The company says that they’re going into production in 2026, but they don’t even have names yet. Don’t worry, I checked. The press release says so little with so many words:
Continuing the development and expansion of the S2 portfolio, this project will use LiveWire’s S2 Arrow powertrain as the basis for an all-new premium electric maxi-scooter, bringing the benchmark performance and range capabilities of LiveWire’s S2 motorcycles to the maxi-scooter category, while developing a new design language and form factor for LiveWire’s first maxi-scooter offering. Intended to be distributed globally, the company is planning a first half 2026 release for the project.
Of course, LiveWire and Kymco have the ability to detune the S2 platform, but I hope that doesn’t happen. Give us stupid-fast scooters! If Harley keeps the stupid power, these would run circles around something like the BMW CE 04, which makes a peak of 42 HP.
There are still many more questions out there as well. Will these be saddeningly expensive or will LiveWire try to crack into a lower-priced market? Will anyone buy electric scooters from a Harley-Davidson spin-off? LiveWire intends to find out by selling these first to Europeans before taking a crack at LiveWire’s home market here in the States. So, I suppose we’ll find out in time.
The most surprising part about all of this to me is that, technically, one of the most exciting Harley-Davidson debuts in recent times is not a gigantic cruiser from Milwaukee, but cute pastel-colored electric scooters. I certainly wasn’t expecting that. I also hope that the minds at LiveWire doesn’t mess with perfection. Please deliver these bad boys with stupid power!
(Images: LiveWire/Kymco)
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