Harley-Davidson-born electric motorcycle maker LiveWire has issued a troubling warning about its financial future, announcing that it has substantial doubt about its ability to continue operating as a going concern. The news sent LiveWire’s stock plunging more than 40% on Thursday morning as the company withdrew its full-year financial guidance.
The announcement comes despite some signs of improving sales, with LiveWire reporting a 38% increase in third-quarter revenue to $7.9 million and a 21% rise in motorcycle unit sales. However, the company continues to burn through cash, reporting a net loss of $18.6 million for the quarter.
LiveWire’s cash reserves have also dwindled significantly, falling from $82.8 million at the end of 2025 to just $39.9 million as of September 30, 2026.
The company has now formed a special restructuring committee to explore potential financing arrangements, strategic partnerships, investments, or even a sale. It also withdrew its previous guidance projecting a $70 million to $80 million operating loss for 2026.
The financial warning comes at a particularly pivotal moment for LiveWire, which is preparing to launch its most affordable electric motorcycles yet.
The upcoming LiveWire S4 Honcho series represents a major departure from the company’s existing premium electric motorcycles, offering smaller, lighter, and significantly more affordable models designed to attract a much broader audience of riders with a starting price below US $5,000.
The lower prices could dramatically increase LiveWire’s sales volumes, especially as the company attempts to move beyond the relatively small market for high-dollar electric motorcycles. The Honcho lineup is also expected to help lower the barrier to entry for new riders, with approachable electric motorcycles that eliminate the complexity of clutch and gear shifting.
LiveWire is also preparing to showcase its latest developments at EICMA in Milan next week, where it is expected to display new models and further expand its upcoming electric motorcycle lineup.
Whether those new motorcycles can arrive quickly enough to turn around the company’s financial situation remains to be seen.
Electrek’s Take
This is genuinely sad news to see. If there’s any legacy motorcycle manufacturer that deserves to succeed in the electric motorcycle space, it’s Harley-Davidson.
Make all the jokes you want about old dudes in leather jackets riding around on loud, chrome-covered motorcycles. But the fact is that Harley-Davidson was taking electric motorcycles seriously when most other major motorcycle manufacturers were still pretending they didn’t exist.
Harley-Davidson didn’t just dip its toes into electric motorcycles. It dove in headfirst, developing the original LiveWire electric motorcycle well over a decade ago and eventually bringing a highly acclaimed production bike to market in 2019. That’s right, Harley-Davidson had a legitimately impressive electric motorcycle on the road before COVID was even a thing. Meanwhile, most of its legacy competitors are only now starting to roll out their first serious electric offerings.
And that’s what makes this so frustrating. Harley-Davidson did the hard part. It invested early, developed excellent technology, received rave reviews, and proved that electric motorcycles could be thrilling, premium machines. But building great motorcycles and building a profitable electric motorcycle business have turned out to be two very different challenges.
The timing is especially unfortunate because I genuinely believe LiveWire’s upcoming S4 Honcho series could be exactly what the company needs. These smaller, significantly more affordable electric motorcycles could finally open LiveWire up to a younger audience that doesn’t have $15,000 to drop on a flagship motorcycle but still wants something fun, stylish, and electric for $5,000.
In many ways, that audience seems like a much more natural fit for LiveWire’s branding and ethos than the premium motorcycle market it has been chasing for years.
I really hope LiveWire can find what it needs to get through this difficult period. After spending more than a decade helping drag the legacy motorcycle industry kicking and screaming into the electric age, it would be a real shame to see the company stumble just as its most promising chapter might be about to begin.
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