LiveWire 'Outsources' Almost Everything to Harley-Davidson

New year, old company?

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Jan 4, 2025 at 8:44am ET

Comment

You probably don't need me to tell you that times are tough right now. To some degree or another, you're seeing it in your own life. Whether it's the price of eggs, the price of heating your home this winter, or something else entirely. Living is expensive.

Companies still aren't people as we start off 2025. But in a weird way, it's still kind of understandable that LiveWire moved back in with parent company Harley-Davidson in 2024. Because stuff, it is expensive, and it doesn't look to be getting any cheaper any time soon.

In that vein, LiveWire appears to be drawing in even closer to Harley-Davidson's warmth to kick off the New Year. In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the American EV motorcycle maker spells out in great detail the terms of a new agreement it's just put into place with its parent company.

Put simply, it is 'outsourcing' a massive number of business functions back to Harley-Davidson, for which it will pay its parent a monthly fee. Is that like the business version of when your parents ask you to pay rent?

What kind of services are we talking about? Here's the full list:

Services supporting testing and development
Product regulatory support
Color materials
Finishes
Paint and graphics
Technical publication
Application support and maintenance
Service desk support
Warehousing support
Production development
Safety investigation
Marketing vehicle and fleet center
Data privacy and security services
Administration
Human resources
Environment Health and Safety (EHS)
Insurance
Quality Management System (QMS)
Warranty analytics
Supply chain management
Engineering
Customer and dealer support
Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) support
Financial reporting and accounting services
Finance support services
Fleet sales and marketing support

Considering that Harley-Davidson already produces LiveWire motorcycles for its EV child, which it then ships to wherever LiveWires are sold (both in the US and Europe at this time), it's becoming less clear where Harley ends and LiveWire begins.

For all intents and purposes, LiveWire is legally a separate business entity. That was the entire purpose of the much-ballyhooed SPAC merger the firm completed to be spun off at the beginning of 2022. And as all of us at RideApart have said before, we're not a business publication.

Tell us what you think!

View

Comments

But if you're using the same people and same resources to make different machines, are you still your own company?

On paper, maybe. But is that all?