Rumor: Harley-Davidson and Alta Motors Are Parting Ways

[Ultratoad]

I still think that Alta should make a statement.... AND I come from a business where the hounds (press) were at the door everyday.... Head in the sand just doesn't cut it anymore....

 

[teddyquinn]

Some sort of statement (from either party) would be nice, though I guess H-D’s announcing a Silicon Valley EV R&D lab was (essentially) theirs.

 

[bluefxstc]

Head in the sand just doesn't cut it anymore....

I would agree with that. Alta can either fill the information void, or leave it to peoples imaginations to fill the void. Either way, the information void will be filled, and it is better for Alta to control how it is filled. Peoples imaginations will almost always be worse than the truth.

 

[Philip]

@Honcho -- The inquiring minds really want to know (see the 43 posts above).

on all of the technical stuff, I have been handcuffed, bound, gagged and beaten into accepting that we will neither confirm nor deny

It is not technical this time, so you can speak freely.

 

[Rob41]

Alta has to very careful and deliberate every step of the way. There is a fine line between what they have achieved and all of the other players including HD, having the tech to duplicate Alta's engineering.

Once the genie is out of the bottle, all the other players may be at an advantage with extensive dealer networks already in place, manufacturing partners etc.

To be honest, I would not for a second dismiss HD as being capable of building a top notch electric dirt bike. Racing has been part of their heritage. They are still involved in flat track racing and MX/Enduro racing would be a venue they could actually go head to head with any of the other companies with the right electric tech. There would be an awful lot of people wanting a bad ass Harley electric MX bike.

IMO, in 3-5 years the flood gates will be wide open and I think when that happens the racing organizations will open up the field to non ICE bikes. They are going to dominate the landscape.

I may be wrong, but I gotta believe Alta is thinking these things too and may be waiting for the right time to find the right buyer to sell their tech to before everyone figures out the controller/software tech. It seems like it's only a matter of time. Whatever way it goes, my hat is off to them for what they have accomplished.

P.S. I still plan on getting an EXR next summer. At 53, I can't afford to wait!

 

[teddyquinn]

There would be an awful lot of people wanting a bad ass Harley electric MX bike.

They've been there before with trick MX (and I ain't talking about the SX250)

H-D did seem, compared to all the others, like a pretty good motorcycle partner to further Alta's distribution and dealer network, because Harley hasn't tried to get into off-road since the '70s, and likely wasn't viewed as a competitor. It's the nature of startups to sort of chase a big liquidity event, whether that's an IPO or acquisition. Would think that it would be KTM who would eventually do the buying, since they've done it a bunch in recent history (Husaberg, Husqvarna). The big Japanese OEMs don't seem to do too many mergers / acquisitions, aside from that weird partnership between Kawi and Suzuki. Perhaps Alta could align themselves with Piaggio (Vespa, Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, and others), if they still want to pursue a dealer partner (assuming that was their big motivation with H-D).

Some additional government contracts would also be nice - that was sort of H-D's saving grace coming out of The Depression (beating Indian to key military contracts in WW2). Seems like more the route Zero has been pushing for lasting self-preservation.

In the meantime, seems like Alta's recent chatter (via social profiles) is on more demo days and getting excited for the next round of Enduro Cross. Both good things