Five Takeaways from Harley-Davidson's Q1 2025 Results
Harley is running out of patience with LiveWire
Harley-Davidson reported its first quarter 2025 fiscal numbers, and as expected, the results weren’t great. Revenue and net income were down through the quarter, though embattled Chief Executive Officer Jochen Zeitz says the numbers weren’t as bad as what was expected.
The first quarter of 2025 generated $1.329 billion in revenue, a 23% decline from the same period of 2024. The net income took a bigger hit, dropping 43% to $133 million from the $235 million reported in Q1 last year.
Harley-Davidson reported retail sales of approximately 31,000 motorcycles in the quarter, compared to about 39,400 in the same period last year. North America remains Harley-Davidson’s primary market, accounting for 20,900 units, a 24% decline from 27,500 in Q1 2024.
Motorcycle shipments were down 33% to 38,600 units from 57,700 bikes, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as dealer inventory levels remain too high. Worldwide inventory levels are at about 56,000 units, which is 19% lower than the 69,000 units reported in the first quarter last year. Reducing shipments will help cool some of the pressures dealers are experiencing, with Harley-Davidson targeting a 10% decrease in inventory levels worldwide by the end of the year.
Those are the main fiscal talking points, but Harley-Davidson’s first quarter presentation included some interesting details that go beyond the numbers.
1. LiveWire is losing voltage
LiveWire’s efforts to reduce costs are continuing as planned, but sales remain dismal with just 33 units sold in the first quarter compared to 117 units last year. LiveWire reported an operating loss of $20 million during Q1 2025, an improvement of a loss of $29 million despite the drop in sales.
For the first time, however, LiveWire’s parent company is saying it’s running out of patience. Zeitz admits that EV adoption has been much slower than originally anticipated, due to the end of electric motorcycle tax credits and the slow expansion of charging infrastructure. Facing this environment, Zeitz says Harley-Davidson is “evaluating all options for its investment in LiveWire,” and will not be providing any additional investments beyond LiveWire’s current line of credit agreement. Any additional funding will have to come from external capital.
LiveWire is currently working on a maxi-scooter with the help of Kymco, which we believe will be called the “Doki”. With the way things stand, it’s likely the Taiwanese company is doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the project, with LiveWire mainly contributing the S2 Arrow powertrain.
2. New model launches are moving back to the fall
Over the last couple of years, Harley-Davidson has been making its big new model announcements early in the new year instead of its traditional fall launch. The idea, at the time, was to announce the new models closer to the start of the North American spring riding season.
After getting feedback from customers and dealers, Harley-Davidson has decided to reverse course and return to a fall launch schedule starting with the 2026 model year. From a dealer perspective, a fall launch helps to extend its sales season, and perhaps help smooth the flow of inventory.
3. Small cruisers and a new “iconic classic”
Speaking of new model launches, Zeitz again confirmed Harley-Davidson will be releasing new entry-level cruisers with lower price points for the 2026 model year.
Zeitz didn’t go into too much detail about what these bikes will look like, though a footnote in a presentation slide on Harley-Davidson’s market share hints that the small cruisers will fall between 601cc and 1,200cc. In previous quarters, Harley-Davidson touted its market share in the “H-D U.S. Large Cruiser” category of bikes 1,200cc and larger. In the 2025 Q1 presentation, Harley-Davidson switched the slide to show “H-D U.S. Total Cruiser” market share, including models in both small 601-1,200cc models and large cruisers displacing 1,201cc and higher.
These new small cruisers will step into a void created by the discontinuation of the old air-cooled Sportsters and the failed liquid-cooled Street lineup. Speaking on the company’s previous attempts at this market, Zeitz says Harley-Davidson had been losing money on entry-level models for three decades.
“Historically, if I look at the last 30 years, we've never had an entry model that actually made money for Harley-Davidson,” says Zeitz. “And we believe that we have an opportunity now based on how we're engineering these bikes to actually come out with a product that is competitive, that is in look, sound and feel very Harley-Davidson and profitable.”
In addition to the entry-level cruisers, Zeitz confirmed the company will be introducing an “iconic classic” cruiser for next year. Zeitz didn’t go into any specifics, but we should expect it to be part of the fall launch.
4. HDFS not for sale, but Harley-Davidson will consider outside partners
There have been several reports over the last few weeks that Harley-Davidson was planning to sell off its financial division, Harley-Davidson Financial Services. Harley-Davidson’s Chief Financial Officer and President of Commercial and previous Senior Vice President of HDFS Jonathon Root addressed these rumors, confirming the company is evaluating outside investment into the division.
Harley-Davidson won’t be seeking an outright sale of HDFS, but rather a long-term strategic partnership to maximize the value of the financial services, while reducing the parent company’s overall costs at funding it.
Over the first quarter of 2025, HDFS reported $245 million in revenue, a 2% decline from 2024. Despite the decrease, HDFS’ operating income grew 19% to $64 million from $54 million.
5. Tariffs!
Like most companies, Harley-Davidson faces headwinds from new tariffs. Harley-Davidson says tariff impacts have been fairly minimal for the first quarter, amounting to about $9 million, but the impacts are expected to rise through the rest of the year. Based on the tariff picture as of April 29, Harley-Davidson expects a year-end tariff impact of $130-170 million.
Harley-Davidson currently operates four manufacturing centers, with three in the U.S. and one in Thailand. Powertrains are built in Menomonee Falls, WI, injection molding and painting are performed in Tomahawk, WI, and final assembly for North America in York, PA. Final motorcycle assembly of Revolution Max models and bikes destined for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are produced in Rayong, Thailand. Touring, Trike, Softail, and CVO models for the U.S. market are manufactured in York, accounting for 95% of Harley-Davidson’s U.S. revenue. Additionally, about 75% of Harley-Davidson parts are sourced from U.S.-based production facilities.
What’s Next for Harley-Davidson?
The first quarter presentation made little reference to Harley-Davidson’s current boardroom drama, specifically the proxy battle with major investor H Partners.
The fate of Harley-Davidson’s board of directors will be decided at the annual shareholder meeting on May 14. Nine directors are up for election, with H Partners urging shareholders to withhold votes from Zeitz and long-time board members Sara Levinson and Thomas Lineberger.
A central point of contention in H Partners’ campaign is the ongoing search for Zeitz’s successor as CEO. H Partners has its own candidate in mind, but failed to get majority board approval earlier this year. That may change if the proxy battle swings in their favor.
Become a Motorcycle.com insider. Get the latest motorcycle news first by subscribing to our newsletter here.
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
More by Dennis Chung
Comments
Join the conversation
I’ve driven by the Harley dealership here in town and from the road you can see it’s all about a the old hair, and grease, and smoke, and leather, and weight, and noise, Harley image. For that reason I won’t even stop. I am looking at getting a bike in the next twelve months or so. Harley isn’t even on my radar. I want small and light, something to get back into riding after too many years away.
From The Article
Zeitz didn’t go into too much detail about what these bikes will look like, though a footnote in a presentation slide on Harley-Davidson’s market share hints that the small cruisers will fall between 601cc and 1,200cc.
When their ‘small’ bikes start at 600cc, they have nothing I’m interested in. As business people have known for a century, when people start with a brand, they tend to stick with it. If Harley doesn’t have intro bikes for people to start out on, they won’t likely get them back when they want to move up. I wish Harley luck, but right now I’ve got a Kawasaki I want to check out.
There is only one thing to do: kill it today, fire everyone who approved of the idea, and pretend it never happened. Okay, that's three things, but still.
This disaster will be studied in top MBA programs for the rest of history as an even worse idea than New Coke and Xerox missing the pc/mouse-GUI revolution.
Idiocy beyond belief.