Harley-Davidson Confirms India Built 500cc Cruiser & Electric Harley

Updated: Thursday, September 5, 2013, 9:37 [IST]

This is huge. While not totally unexpected, it is a major news never the less. During the Harley Davidson 110th anniversary celebrations at Milwaukee, company COO Matthew Levatich must have left many a mouth agape when he revealed the company's plans to come out with a 500cc baby Harley Davidson.

Since its inception Harley has always been about massive motorcycles. The entire culture, especially in America, that has grew around these large capacity ramblers are defined by loud, large capacity cruiser style bikes. For these people a small 500cc Harley is worse than an abomination.

So why is the American motorcycle maker coming out with a small capacity bike? For countries like India of course. By Indian standards a 500cc bike is still large, not to mention a lot more affordable than a 1000+cc Harley Davidson. Levatich confirmed the same by saying the 500cc bike under development would be built in India and it will cater to other Asian markets where a small displacement Harley will not be looked at as an outcast.

And that was not it. Levatich had one more surprise for the Harley Davidson family gathered. Something hard core Harley Davidson followers might look at as nothing short of taboo. An electric bike. Levatich made it clear that the possibility of that happening was not as remote as one might think. Look towards India Auto Expo 2014 folks.

500cc & Electric Harley Davidson Confirmed

Image: H-D Sportster 883cc. The smallest existing H-D.

Levatich described the still under development 500cc H-D as "nimble, light weight, has a low seat height and supple throttle and braking. I've ridden it - it looks great, sounds great, it's a Harley, and it's priced right."

"We want to get it out as soon as we can, but it's got to be right. New engines are complicated, and we've got to get everything right from a durability, reliability and confidence perspective. On the other hand, chassis and other things are a lot more straightforward," He added.

"The American qualities of a Harley are very important to people," said Levatich. "The literal ‘where does that shock absorber come from' part of it is less significant, but it has to have the spirit and soul of America. We have Harley-Davidson factories in India and Brazil - can we leverage those facilities and expertise so it can get to the, for example, Indian consumer, faster?"

About the electric Harley

"I am sometimes asked... whether there will be an electric Harley," said Levatich. "People would say ‘hell no'. But why not: our engineers are quite intrigued with the idea of what an electric Harley would look like, sound like and feel like. And would it be visceral, would it be emotional, would it be luscious. And there's a way to do that I believe, and it would be very exciting."

As quoted by Gizmag