By Ben Sellers
Headline USA

(January 25, 2023) Farewell, Hell’s Angel’s. Hello, Heck’s Snowflakes. The CEO of Harley–Davidson said the company plans to go full electric in the foreseeable future, according to a recent interview with British design magazine Dezeen. “At some point in time, Harley Davidson will be all-electric,” said Jochen Zeit, the German-born top executive of the quintessentially American motorbike brand. “But that’s a long-term transition that needs to happen,” he reassured bikers. “It’s not something you do overnight.”

The company’s first electric option, the LiveWire, launched in 2018, quickly rivaling rice-burners everywhere and forcing more than a few Vespa owners to spill their cappuccinos.

The aptly-named Zeit said the long march of time throughout the brand’s storied history had always been building toward the moment when wokeness entered into the corporate Zeitgeist and allowed the chopper industry to virtue-signal its commitment to green energy. “If you look at the past 120 years, the company has always evolved, never stood still,” Zeit said.

“Now, like the founders did at the time by trying to reinvent or invent something unique, that’s obviously something that we as a company brand need to do as well,” he continued. “What we’re doing is celebrating our past but also evolving the brand at the same time. It’s a natural evolution that needed to happen.”


Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle

Zeit says his philosophy is that if it ain’t broke, keep tinkering. “I believe in big transformational change for iconic brands, which is what I’ve always done in my life,” he said. If Harley’s deeply loyal base of customers objects, Zeit added, they can always find new ones to replace the old. “We are targeting different consumer profiles — you have the traditional core customer, but you have a contemporary core customer, you have dreamers that aspire to ride or may just dream about the brand,” he said.

And even those who loathe the very idea of hitting the open road on a two-wheeled hog should be able to get the warm fuzzies when hearing the Harley name, he continued. After all, the real money is in merchandising.

“The brand is not just for inspiring for those who buy motorcycles,” Zeit said. “It’s inspiring for others, which is why we’re making such made such a big effort on apparel and accessories to really bring the brand to broader customer bases — customers that might or might not ride one day.”