Recently, it has been reported that Kwangyang has partnered with Harley-Davidson to invest $100 million in Harley's sub-brand LiveWire and will be listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange. At that time, LiveWire will also become the first public company of electric motorcycles in the United States, and GwangY will hold about 4% of the liveWire shares.
LiveWire is listed on the New York Stock Exchange through the acquisition of AEA-Bridges Impact Corp, and the valuation after the listing will reach 2.31 billion US dollars, of which 100 million US dollars of Gwangyang Investment will account for about 4% of the shares, Harley will own 74% of the shares, and ABIC will hold 14% of the shares.
GwangY does not have a significant stake in LiveWire, but will play an important role in LiveWire's operations and logistics in Asia. We don't yet know if Kwangyang will become LiveWire's Asian foundry in the future, or whether it will share technology.
LiveWire also announced a new platform, Arrow, in conjunction with its public offering, which fully integrates electric motors and drives them directly without a gearbox. The pivot point is aligned with the pinion of the main reducer, and the entire drive unit is used in a load-bearing manner, thus reducing weight.
The biggest difference between Arrow and most of its electric motorcycles is the load-bearing battery. Until now, most of the components of electric motorcycles, batteries, motors and shock absorbers, are usually installed on traditional frames. The Arrow is a large drive block consisting of batteries, motors, battery management and control electronics, with the steering head screwed to the subframe, the swing arm directly attached to the side motor bearings, and the shock absorbers supported by a deflection device on the back of the battery pack.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2020, Harley showed off the EDT 600R, which is a lightweight retro-style electric motorcycle designed with the Arrow platform. In the near future, LiveWire will also release An Arrow-based S2 models, and the light S3 models that have been cooperated with will soon be unveiled.