Indian to Compete with Harley-Davidson
In January, Polaris Industries announced it was closing the Victory motorcycle brand. Recently, Polaris announced its intention to roll out electric motorcycles under the company’s growing Indian brand in the next four to five years. Polaris motorcycle division president Steve Menneto recently made the comment to Reuters, after citing that Polaris’ current electric motorcycles are Victory bikes sold under the Empulse brand.
The decision comes not long after Polaris decided to close the Victory line in favor of putting more focus on Indian, which has grown its U.S. market share in what has been a relatively flat market for motorcycle sales.
According to the Polaris timeline, electric Indian motorcycles should hit the market around the same time as Harley-Davidson will introduce its LiveWire electric motorcycle. It’s no secret Indian and Harley vie for the same spot in the market and this simultaneous rush to the electric model could be a significant boost for whoever does it better.
In 2014, Harley introduced the LiveWire as a prototype available for test rides. Originally LiveWire was priced at $50,000 with a range of 53 miles. However, industry experts expect the consumer model to go for $15,000 and a range of at least 150 miles. Menneto also told Reuters that the Indian electric bike would have a range of up to 140 miles on a single charge.
While Harley-Davidson dominates the U.S. market for heavyweight motorcycles, Indian’s market share has grown 3% since 2011 of the U.S. on-highway motorcycle market.