Harley-Davidson dabbles with electric hogs
SOUT HFIELD, MICH. — Forget about the snarly Harley, the folks at Harley-Davidson Inc. want to know what you think of a quieter Hog that whistles down the road on electric power.
After generations of growling gasoline engines with their powerful potato-potato rumble, the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker has come up with a green bike that runs on electricity. Its sound is “high-toned, but still very strong,” said chief marketing officer Mark-Hans Richer, sort of like a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier. “Whether it’s riding by or you’re riding on it, the sound needed to have an emotional character,” he said. “When you hear it go by, you say, ‘Wow. That’s cool.’”
The motorcycle maker, whose storied highway cruisers are as loud as they are large, will take 22 electric bikes on a U.S. tour starting next week to solicit reactions that will help shape the environmentally aware vehicle’s development. Depending on the feedback, the no-exhaust Harley may never make it out of R & D, said Richer.
Two fleets of the prototypes will be demonstrated in more than 30 cities starting June 24 in New York, the company said.
People will be able to take the bike for a spin or sit astride one hooked to a machine that’ll simulate the riding experience, Richer said.
The tour will continue next year in more U.S. cities and in Europe and Canada.