[Junko]

Not how much will it cost, could it cost or should it cost. How much does it cost, the prototypes that is?

$250,000 EACH.

If Harley-Davidson is to be believed, the upcoming 30-city 'Project LiveWire'—10,000 public test rides on hand-made prototypes costing well over $250,000 each—is all an elaborate market research project. The Motor Company is only conducting the tour to get a general sense of the interest in electric motorcycles.

 

[Yusef]

I refuse to believe that they spent that much money building bikes that they will never sell. What would all that money have actually paid for?

 

[Hawkman]

Thats a **** tin of money.i wonder if they'll make it all back eventually. This seems like a pretty long-term and preliminary investment.

 

[L!VE]

They probably factored in man hours into building them which added a lot to the cost, produced on a mass scale it shouldn't cost near as much, clearly.

 

[Junko]

They probably factored in man hours into building them which added a lot to the cost, produced on a mass scale it shouldn't cost near as much, clearly.

True, but Harley still does a good chunk of their assembly by hand... I think most of the cost is powertrain related, they sourced that from Mission Motors...

 

[Hawkman]

I still can't believe they spent that much on each bike. Like, i actually am in disbelief. Are we sure that is correct?

Because when the Livewire does come on sale, how much do we think it should sell for?

$20k? $30k?

 

[Junko]

yea but there is a massive difference between prototype and production. ITs not often you can find development costs for manufacturer prototypes but I imagine they are an equally staggering figure.

Also consider that the number per prototype could simply be the number of protos divided by the total cost of the ENTIRE Livewire project from the ground up...

 

[L!VE]

Junko made some good point. HD stated the price but I think they need to be more detailed with it, which is needed.

 

[Hawkman]

yea but there is a massive difference between prototype and production. ITs not often you can find development costs for manufacturer prototypes but I imagine they are an equally staggering figure.

Also consider that the number per prototype could simply be the number of protos divided by the total cost of the ENTIRE Livewire project from the ground up...

Good comments. Do we have any idea exactly how many Livewire prototypes were built?

Now I am also curious about other prototypes generally and how much they cost to build.

 

[L!VE]

I believe there might be models in the 20's, i did see some pictures of a good amount of them being hauled out to the tours.

 

[Junko]

theres 39 of them...

None of the experienced motojournalists at the 'reveal' believes that. The bikes we saw—Harley built a total of 39—are far too well finished, and too resolved in their design. Andy Downes, the editor of MCN, bets there will be a production announcement within 18 month

 

[L!VE]

Wow, that's a lot.
What would be cool now is seeing all of them together. At most I can recall seeing about 15-20 in a trailer. I'm guessing maybe they had 2 trailers with them.

 

[Hawkman]

18 months for production? I guess that makes sense. The announcement would come far before it actually starts so that makes sense.

 

[L!VE]

It's a long time, but seems like it will be worth it, especially if you really like this thing.

 

[Junko]

mission retails one of their bikes for 30k, if harley comes on board or say buys mission (and turns it into something like buell) we could see them bring prod costs way down

 

[L!VE]

mission retails one of their bikes for 30k, if harley comes on board or say buys mission (and turns it into something like buell) we could see them bring prod costs way down

Considering the amount of money HD probably has, this is something I think they should go through with. It could be what's best for them.