Harley-Davidson’s direct-to-consumer electric motorcycle brand LiveWire makes a variety of exciting and fun-to-ride motorcycles, and if the brand’s 2025 first quarter financials are anything to go by, absolutely nobody is buying them. According to the report LiveWire sold just 33 motorcycles across Q1’s 90 day period, down 72% from the same quarter last year. Perhaps potential electric motorcycle buyers either already have one or they’re putting off big purchases until the current economic turmoil starts to ease up a little. Motorcycles aren’t exactly a purchasing priority when you don’t know if you’ll lose your job or your retirement account overnight. Harley says the company’s sales woes are “driven by a volatile macroeconomic environment and overall consumer uncertainty.” You can say that again.
I will fully admit to being a homer for LiveWire. I loved the bike so much when I attended the press launch event that I bought my own, and I still think it’s the best bike I’ve ever ridden. It’s difficult to say how long LiveWire will continue to exist if it costs The Motor Company millions of dollars. LiveWire as a brand, including its Stacyc “electric stability cycles” for kids, only managed to bring in $3 million in revenue across the first quarter of the year, for an operating loss of $20 million. For each of the motorcycles LiveWire sold between January 1 and March 31, it lost about $606,000. Yikes.
A few years ago LiveWire said it was aiming to sell 100,000 bikes per year by 2026. It seemed optimistic back then, and downright impossible today.
Did Harley fare any better?
Harley-Davidson, in spite of everything going on right now, still managed to haul in $1.32 Billion in revenue across the first quarter. That’s a pretty massive fall off from the $1.73 Billion it brought in across the same period last year, but all things considered could have been a lot worse. Obviously a sharp drop in bike sales contributed to Harley’s situation, as the company shipped just 38,600 motorcycles in Q1 2025, versus the 57,700 bikes delivered in Q1 2024. H-D’s operating income fell by a precipitous 51% year over year as a result.
Even with this massive drop in sales, Harley still managed to turn a pretty significant profit, generating about $142 million in cash income when you include the highly profitable in-house financing company. The company used about $87 million of that cash on stock buybacks, re-purchasing about 3.4 million of its own shares back. Even in troubled economic times and years of declining market share, Harley is a serious money maker. Go figure.