Electric motorcycles have yet to fully take off on the road. Especially when we talk about large motorcycles, trips or intensive use outside the city and small models. But in offroad the situation, due to the type of use that is made, begins to be different, and there are different brands that are committed to it. The latest Harley-Davidson.
Through LiveWire, its division specialized in electric motorcycles, the American company has announced the purchase of Dust Moto, a North American startup specialized in the development of electric dirt bikes. The operation also represents the first acquisition made by LiveWire since its birth as an independent brand.
The idea behind the movement is to take advantage of the platform developed by Dust Moto and combine it with all the industrial, technological and commercial capacity of LiveWire, to launch a new range of electric offroad motorcycles, although the details of the project will not be made public until the second half of 2026.
Until now, LiveWire had focused all its activity on road motorcycles. There follow models such as the LiveWire One or the S2 platform, on which motorcycles such as the Del Mar, Mulholland or the most recent Alpinista are based.
Harley has seen a gap in the electric offroad market
It seems, at least in certain places like the United States, that electric offroading is beginning to work commercially. Much more, in fact, than electric motorcycles designed exclusively for the road.
Brands like Stark Future have proven this over the past few years. The Spanish firm has managed to carve out an important niche thanks to models such as the Stark Varg or the Varg EX, motorcycles that have begun to convince even users traditionally far removed from electric ones. Especially for performance, reduced maintenance and behavior in real use.
Smaller and more accessible models, such as the Sur-Ron, have also managed to find a large market for both recreational and urban use. And offroad also has an important advantage over road use and that is that the autonomy limitations weigh much less. The sessions are usually shorter, more intense and usually far from long rides or continuous trips, where electric motorcycles still have more problems competing with a traditional combustion motorcycle.
The purchase also represents an important step in LiveWire’s own evolution. The brand was initially born as an internal Harley-Davidson electric project before officially becoming independent in 2021, although Harley remains the main shareholder.
Now, with this operation, LiveWire opens a new stage that no longer only involves urban naked or electric road motorcycles, but also an offroad segment that is beginning to gain followers.
