LiveWire fights for survival: Harley-Davidson will no longer cover its losses

• LiveWire shares lost almost 44 percent by the close of trading on 29 October 2026, ending at approximately 0.81 euros / 0.90 US dollars.
• LiveWire has expressed substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern and withdrawn its 2026 guidance.
• Harley-Davidson owns almost 90 percent of LiveWire but no longer intends to pay for its ongoing losses.

Together with its third-quarter results, LiveWire issued a warning on 29 October 2026 that had an immediate effect on the stock market. Management doubts that the company can get through the next twelve months without fresh money. At the same time, Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle brand scrapped its full-year guidance. That same morning, Harley CEO Artie Starrs made it clear that the parent company will not absorb the losses. The share price crash is the provisional end point of a turbulent few days: only a week earlier, LiveWire had lost its long-standing CEO Karim Donnez and put a restructuring expert in charge.

Why did LiveWire stock fall so sharply on 29 October 2026?

The trigger was the warning about a possible end of the company and the withdrawn full-year guidance. By 10 a.m. local time in New York, the stock was down 42 percent, and by the close of trading the loss was almost 44 percent.

The closing price of approximately 0.81 euros / 0.90 US dollars is not a new low for LiveWire. Even before the slump, the stock had lost more than 60 percent since the start of the year. In July it even slipped below approximately 0.90 euros / 1 US dollar. On 23 July, LiveWire therefore received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange NYSE. Its rules require the average closing price over 30 trading days to be at least one US dollar. A company then has six months to bring the price back above this mark. If it fails, it faces delisting from the NYSE and a move to over-the-counter trading.

Back then, relief came quickly. Strong second-quarter figures with record sales of 267 motorcycles lifted the price from approximately 0.69 euros / 0.77 US dollars to more than approximately 1.79 euros / 2 US dollars within a few days. On 31 July, the stock closed at approximately 1.62 euros / 1.81 US dollars. With the current closing price, it is now back below the NYSE’s one-dollar threshold.

What does LiveWire’s going concern warning mean?

With a going concern warning, a listed company admits that it has serious doubts about its own ability to continue operating. LiveWire applies these doubts to the year following the issuance of its financial statements as of 30 September 2026.

The company cites four closely related reasons. The operating business has been losing money for years, and more cash is flowing out than coming in. Reserves are tight, and further capital will be needed in the future. LiveWire has not announced insolvency or the discontinuation of its business. Instead, the company is looking for ways out: large capital increases, strategic partners or investors, sales or other transactions. Whether this will succeed is open. LiveWire itself points out that there is no guarantee of success.

The previous guidance for 2026 projected an operating loss of approximately 62.7 to 71.6 million euros / 70 to 80 million US dollars. LiveWire withdrew it because a newly formed committee is now reviewing all options, from financing to a sale. More details on liquidity are to follow in the quarterly report, which LiveWire plans to file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC by 9 November 2026.

What is LiveWire’s financial situation?

Revenue is growing, but losses remain high and cash is running short. In the third quarter of 2026, revenue rose by 38 percent to approximately 7.1 million euros / 7.9 million US dollars, while the net loss was approximately 16.6 million euros / 18.6 million US dollars.

A year earlier, the loss had been approximately 17.4 million euros / 19.4 million US dollars, so the situation has improved only slightly. At first glance, unit sales also look decent: LiveWire reports 7,233 units sold, 21 percent more than in the previous year. However, 6,992 of these are electric balance bikes and e-bikes from the children’s brand STACYC. LiveWire sold only 241 actual motorcycles in the quarter, up from 184 a year earlier. That is an increase of 31 percent, but fewer than the 267 machines in the second quarter. Motorcycles generated approximately 2.4 million euros / 2.7 million US dollars in revenue for LiveWire.

After nine months, the net loss stands at approximately 49.2 million euros / 55.0 million US dollars, on revenue of approximately 19.8 million euros / 22.1 million US dollars. The operating business consumed approximately 34.3 million euros / 38.3 million US dollars during this period. Reserves are shrinking accordingly. At the end of 2025, LiveWire still had approximately 74.1 million euros / 82.8 million US dollars in cash, but by 30 September 2026 this had fallen to just approximately 35.7 million euros / 39.9 million US dollars. Equity has fallen from approximately 41.2 million euros / 46.0 million US dollars to approximately minus 4.9 million euros / minus 5.5 million US dollars. Liabilities total approximately 97.9 million euros / 109.4 million US dollars.

The largest item is a long-term loan of approximately 68.7 million euros / 76.8 million US dollars. It comes from a related party and is due in December 2027. Harley-Davidson had granted LiveWire a credit line of up to approximately 67.1 million euros / 75 million US dollars in November 2025. The approaching maturity was explicitly one of the reasons for the shake-up at the top.

How tight things could get was shown by a question during Harley’s conference call with analysts. Citi analyst James Hardiman calculated that, at the same pace, the roughly 35.8 million euros / 40 million US dollars could be roughly halved by the end of the year. For 2027, the market expects further losses of approximately 53.7 million euros / 60 million US dollars.

Yet LiveWire is a leader in its core segment. In the US market for street-legal electric motorcycles with more than 68 hp (50 kW), the brand claims an 80 percent market share. However, the segment is so small that even this share means only a few hundred motorcycles per quarter.

Who is running LiveWire after Karim Donnez’s resignation?

The company is now led by Roy Gallagher, who steers the restructuring as Chief Restructuring Officer and is also the top executive. He reports to a special committee of the board of directors that is negotiating LiveWire’s future.

The shake-up at the top took place within a few days. On 21 October 2026, CEO Karim Donnez resigned with immediate effect; LiveWire gave no reasons in its mandatory filing with the securities regulator. One day later, the board formed a restructuring committee consisting of William Cornog and newly appointed David Barse. The committee is authorised to review, negotiate and recommend financing, sales, debt restructuring and other transactions to the board. It also decides on its own whether individual board members have conflicts of interest in a transaction. The previous committee for such conflicts was dissolved.

Alongside Barse, Scott Nash, who is responsible for quality at Harley-Davidson, has also joined the board and receives no additional compensation for it. Barse, on the other hand, receives approximately 40,300 euros / 45,000 US dollars per month. In addition, there is a daily rate of approximately 6,700 euros / 7,500 US dollars for certain legal matters.

On 25 October, the committee finally appointed Gallagher. The 50-year-old has been a Senior Managing Director at the consulting firm Ankura Consulting Group since 2016. He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial markets, more than ten of them as an investor in the debt of distressed companies. Gallagher is not paid directly by LiveWire. Ankura receives a flat fee of approximately 125,300 euros / 140,000 US dollars per month for its work. On top of that come hourly rates for other Ankura employees and expenses.

Will Harley-Davidson still step in for LiveWire?

No, Harley-Davidson no longer wants to finance LiveWire’s ongoing losses, even though the group holds almost 90 percent of the shares. CEO Artie Starrs stressed this twice when presenting the quarterly results on 29 October 2026.

In his remarks, Starrs addressed the subsidiary’s warning directly. When an analyst followed up, he repeated the line: „We do not intend to fund the operating losses of LiveWire going forward.“ This is the same position he had already taken last year, he said. The LiveWire team is working on other sources of capital. Starrs declined to comment beyond what had already been published.

The distance is remarkable because LiveWire is closely intertwined with its parent company. At the IPO in 2022, Harley-Davidson intended to keep 74 percent; the stake has since grown to almost 90 percent. Harley has taken back many of LiveWire’s functions, and with Scott Nash, a Harley manager sits on the subsidiary’s board.

For the parent company itself, the quarter went considerably better. On the same day, Harley-Davidson raised its guidance for its own motorcycle business. Operating income for 2026 is now expected to be approximately 22.4 to 49.2 million euros / 25 to 55 million US dollars, compared with a previous target of approximately 9.0 to 44.8 million euros / 10 to 50 million US dollars.

How did LiveWire end up in this situation?

The crisis has a long history, as LiveWire has fallen far short of its own targets from the very beginning. Instead of the announced 100,000 or so motorcycles per year, the brand still sells only a few hundred.

The story began in 2019 as a model in Harley-Davidson’s line-up. The first LiveWire cost 29,799 US dollars at the time and was reduced to 21,999 US dollars in 2021, which at the current exchange rate is approximately 26,670 euros and 19,690 euros. In September 2022, LiveWire went public as an independent company. This was done through a merger with an already listed shell company, a so-called SPAC. The stock started at around 10 US dollars (approximately 8.95 euros today). LiveWire promised investors around 100,000 motorcycles sold and approximately 1.58 billion euros / 1.77 billion US dollars in revenue for 2026.

LiveWire is far from that. Since 2021, the brand has not sold more than 660 motorcycles in any year; in 2025 it was 653. The company has posted losses every year since its IPO. The net loss was highest in 2023 at approximately 103.8 million euros / 116 million US dollars; in 2025 it was approximately 67.2 million euros / 75.1 million US dollars. From 2022 to 2025, losses add up to approximately 331 million euros / 370 million US dollars, each converted at the current exchange rate.

LiveWire has countered mainly with price cuts and cheaper models. In the US, the LiveWire One now costs approximately 12,530 euros / 13,999 US dollars, and the models on the mid-range S2 platform start at approximately 10,740 euros / 11,999 US dollars. The small S4 Honcho is available from approximately 4,475 euros / 4,999 US dollars. In the US, it has only been delivered since August 2026, and the street version reached dealers in October. In Europe, the trail version is due in October and the Honcho Street in November.

What does the crisis mean for the Dust Hightail and the EICMA appearance?

At EICMA 2026 in Milan in early November, LiveWire plans to show the production version of the Dust Hightail, an electric off-road motorcycle. What happens to this and other models afterwards depends on whether the restructuring committee finds new capital or a buyer.

The Hightail comes from Dust Motorcycles. LiveWire acquired the start-up in May 2026 to enter the market for electric off-road motorcycles. Together with the affordable Honcho, it was meant to open up new groups of buyers for LiveWire. The trade show appearance now falls right in the middle of the search for money. Harley-Davidson itself is also present at EICMA, where it is presenting the Sprint, which is initially set to launch outside the US. The show is considered the central stage for the new models of the coming model year.

For owners and prospective buyers, questions remain open. In its communications so far, LiveWire has not commented on what the situation means for warranty, spare parts and service. A clearer picture is likely to emerge only once the detailed quarterly report is available and the committee makes its first decisions.

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