LiveWire

LiveWire 'S2' Del Mar LE Revealed

LiveWire, Harley-Davidson's soon to be floated electric bike subsidiary, has previewed its second generation of battery-powered machines in the form of the 'S2' Del Mar Launch Edition - and secured deposits for the first 100 bikes in just 18 minutes, despite production (or at least deliveries) not being slated until the Spring of 2023.
The 'S2' Del Mar is the first LiveWire to use the company's new 'Arrow' modular platform. The Arrow architecture is essentially a structural battery case that allows a variety of battery capacities to be used, as well as a range of different electric motors, while smaller subframes bolted to the front and rear of the central structure allow it to be shared across bikes of different sizes and geometries. 

The Del Mar is the only 'S2' model to be shown so far and adopts a flat-track-inspired look that was initially previewed in official Harley-Davidson sketches in 2020. A lozenge-shaped headlight sits in a stubby nose cowl that mimics the front number board of a flat-tracker, while the bars are wide and the wheels fairly narrow 19-inch alloys.
The bike is claimed to be good for 80 hp (59.6 kW), with a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a range of around 100 miles in city conditions. The relatively short range (the bigger LiveWire One manages 146 miles in the city) gets a payoff in the form of a lighter battery, with the 'S2' Del Mar expected to come in at under 440 lbs/200 kg, ready-to-ride. In comparison, the LiveWire One (formerly known as the Harley-Davidson LiveWire) is 500 lbs/255 kg, has 105 hp and does 0-60 mph in three seconds dead.

At the moment, LiveWire hasn't made any claims for the Del Mar's range outside the city, but since the LiveWire One is only good for 70 miles between charges at highway speeds, the Del Mar might well exhaust its battery in around 50 miles in the same conditions.
The limited Launch Edition version of the Del Mar gets its own dedicated cast alloy wheel design with intricate spokes intended to represent the wiring on a circuit board, as well as a hand-applied paint finish that takes a full five days to complete. With that in mind, at $17,699 in the United States, the MSRP doesn't look unreasonable, coming it at around $5,000 less than the LiveWire One. The full production version of the Del Mar, with simpler wheels and less exotic paintwork, is due to cost $15,000 in the USA when the bikes reach production in Spring 2023. The mass-made version will be available as soon as the limited Launch Edition models are being delivered.
Once the Arrow platform is in production, we can expect further LiveWire models to come thick and fast, with a range of styles and performance levels. Later on, a lighter-weight 'S3' range is due to appear with a scaled-down version of the same Arrow design, followed by a heavyweight 'S4' line-up, likely to replace the original LiveWire One and expand the options further still.