Is Harley-Davidson about to cut the cord on its LiveWire electric motorcycle brand? That’s the question that some are mulling after LiveWire’s parent, Harley-Davidson’s recent quarterly investors meeting. While the meeting was more about Harley’s quarterly performance, as a corporate parent, the discussion included the financial performance of its LiveWire electric motorcycle brand.

Sales of the brand’s electric motorcycles continue to be dismal. Since its inception in 2019, LiveWire has only sold somewhere around 2,350 motorcycles. Worse still, despite now having four models to choose from in their product lineup, sales totals continue to slump. Q1 of 2025 saw the electric motorcycle manufacturer selling only 33 bikes across its four bike portfolio.

In Q1 of 2025, LiveWire reported losses in unit sales (72 percent), STACYC balance bike sales (33 percent), and revenue (43 percent). The only news with positive results was that the company’s operating loss declined to $20M (32 percent) year over year.

Analyst Questions

For the last couple of quarterly meetings, analysts have asked Harley-Davidson Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz and LiveWire CEO Karim Donnez about LiveWire’s lagging sales and financial losses. The answers provided have been less than detailed, with comments about market volatility and the macroeconomic market issues.

Image: Harley-Davidson

Cutting The Cord

Up until now, perhaps the most telling detail came during Harley-Davidson’s Q4 2024 quarterly meeting. At the time, Zeitz told investors and analysts that if LiveWire’s performance didn’t improve, Harley-Davidson would look at other “optionalities.” While it was an answer, it was still a pretty fuzzy one, yet analysts seemed to accept it.

However, this quarter was different. Questions from investor analysts about LiveWire’s financial performance were more pointed. It seemed that they wanted some more detailed information about what they could expect to see from LiveWire and how Harley-Davidson intended to handle the LiveWire brand in the future. For the most part, Zeitz’s and Donnez’s responses were about cutting costs.

But when pressed, Zeitz told investors that Harley-Davidson had not committed any more money to LiveWire beyond the $100M loan agreement it had agreed to in 2024. How much of that money has already been disbursed or used is unclear. However, it is a marker that the MoCo has limits on its funding of LiveWire.

How Long?

The question now becomes how much of the $100M loan LiveWire has already expended. Even if LiveWire hasn’t spent a dime of that loan facility, it would seem that the time for the LiveWire brand is very limited. Having reported a $20M operating loss in its latest quarter, LiveWire doesn’t have many quarters of funding left.

They will almost immediately have to convert their losses into gains, and that scenario does not seem likely. With continually declining sales and only 33 bikes sold in Q1, there’s little chance that LiveWire will sell enough bikes to keep the doors open before it runs out of Harley’s cash.  Could they seek funding elsewhere? It’s possible, but where would that money come from? What would they tell their new investors about how they will succeed?

For now, it seems that LiveWire is standing on a precipice staring into oblivion: their only salvation is a fraying cord that is the $100M loan given to it by Harley-Davidson. How long that cord will last isn’t known, but LiveWire is going to have to find a more secure perch to keep from falling into the dark pit. Unfortunately for the brand, however, it seems the stones of its foundation are slowly crumbling, and no one at LiveWire is able to stop it.