LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric brand, is facing a recall of its latest model, the S2 Del Mar, over a software glitch that can cause pesky problems for its riders.
Imagine: you have just bought a beautiful electric motorcycle. You leave on a beautiful sunny day for a walk. But in the middle of your journey, without warning, your mount stops. Nothing left on the screen. Nothing lights up anymore. Impossible to return home. This is more or less what could happen to one of the stars of 2023 on the electric market, the LiveWire S2 Del Mar.
In any case, this is what we learned in a recall notice issued by the NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, the road safety organization in the United States. Published on February 26, 2024, it concerns the American market. But why couldn’t it concern us when the motorcycle is also marketed in Europe and France?
More fear than harm
As described in the example above, NHTSA explains that the LiveWire S2 Del Mar’s monitoring control software can, under certain conditions, cause the motorcycle to come to a complete stop. That is to say that the engine cuts out suddenly, without the pilot being warned of any problem. A big problem when driving obviously, which can be particularly dangerous in traffic. But it seems that the bike can’t even be restarted. A sudden stop which would be due to exceeding the software voltage threshold.
Fortunately, as explained by the NHTSA, no incidents were reported. This is therefore a preventive reminder. But all owners of affected motorcycles have been contacted to carry out an update which is done either remotely (OTA) or directly at a LiveWire reseller.
The motorcycles concerned
In detail, this recall concerns the 523 LiveWire S2 Del Mar which are already running in the United States. Or 100% of production already on the roads. These are motorcycles produced between July 26, 2023 and January 30, 2024 and have serial numbers between 1HD3GCYB0RB550038 to 1HD3GCYHXRB550939.
No call back to us?
Obviously, this recall in the USA raises the question of the recall of the LiveWire S2 Del Mar here too. Why wouldn’t that be the case? For the simple reason that as explained in the recall notice published by the NHTSA, vehicles produced from February 7, 2024 began to receive the software already updated. And as the motorcycle in question is still on pre-order with us, and deliveries have not started, it should not be confronted with the problem pointed out once it arrives on our roads.