Max Rossi/Reuters
Legendary motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announced Thursday it will be releasing its first prototype for an electric motorcycle, called Project Live Wire. The company and its products have pretty much been working with the internal-combustion engine for more than a hundred years. While the motorcycles will not be for sale, they will be introduced for enthusiasts to test ride. Those thousands of logged hours, in places like New York City, will go toward an even longer process of potentially building an electric motorcycle for mass production. “Customers will tell us what they think it will take to make a great electric motorcycle. I am sure we will discover things that we cannot anticipate right now,” said Mark-Hans Richer, the company’s chief marketing officer. And while the bike won’t have the company’s iconic engine rumble, Richer says there will be an even better noise: “Think fighter jet on an aircraft carrier. Project Live Wire’s unique sound was designed to differentiate it from internal combustion and other electric motorcycles on the market.”