I see one big problem, and seeing this is HD, that will be over priced bikes that are short on features. As soon as the other major manufacturers,Japanese and EU, jump in with their EV's they will be lower priced with more features.
I'll be curious how the new electric H-D products fare, as I'm likewise happy to see that Harley has some interesting stuff coming down the pipeline. However, I am going to respectfully disagree with you on the pricing issue. I'm not at all convinced that H-D products are overpriced, with the extrapolation that their electric bikes won't be overpriced either.
Sure, there are cheap Japanese bikes, but if you compare like-for-like, the MSRPs are similar. A few quick examples:
- Road Glide ($21,700 - $28,300 base price) vs Gold Wing ($23,800 - $27,500 base price) vs Yamaha Star Eluder/Venture ($22,500 - $27,000)
- Shadow 750 ($7,700) vs Street 750 (the most comparable H-D product, which is also $7,700) or Sportster 883 ($9,000).
I'm likewise not convinced that the Japanese bikes provide any more features than the H-D bikes. I'd be genuinely curious to see what features people are referring to when they say H-D products are poorly equipped compared to their rivals (seriously, if anyone has specific examples of what their competitor bike offers that H-D doesn't please let me know).
The perception that Harleys are overpriced comes from the absence of entry-level H-D products, rather than any like-vs-like comparisons. Harley has no bikes that are even remotely close to cheap Japanese offerings like the Honda Grom/Monkey (incidentally, the Monkey looks like a hell of a lot of fun and I want one) or YZF-R3, to name a few.
I don't think the price differential between H-D electrics and Japanese electrics will be significant. However, the price differential between a cheap gas bike and a cheap electric bike might be much more significant, as electric bikes are considerably more expensive (at least for now) than a comparable gas-powered bike. For example, the Livewire is $29,900 and the Hayabusa is $14,800, and it might be generous to consider the 'Wire and 'Busa to be comps. I bought my first bike - a lousy then-15 year old Honda 250 - for $500 and enjoyed the hell out of that bike for 15,000 miles. The best first bikes are $500 bikes that we buy on a whim from a neighbor or friend that has one to spare. Will non-riders be willing to spend what it takes to buy an entry-level electric bike? I imagine any cheap electric bike that we would recognize as a true motorcycle will be $7,000+. Is there a buyer for that market? Will people buy these cool new H-D products?
I sure hope they do. Based on my experiences with my Road King, Livewire, and numerous Harleys that I've rented, borrowed, or otherwise ridden, the new electric Harleys will be very well-engineered, high quality products. I'm looking forward to seeing them on the road, and possibly in my garage.
(Incidentally, I'm not a corporate shill for H-D, although I admit I'm a lifelong H-D fan and a bit of an H-D apologist)