The News
Yesterday, Livewire announced the acquisition of Dust Moto, the Oregon-based e-motorcycle startup that has developed the Hightail motocrosser. The announcement:
The Impact
In the early days of InsightEV, we wrote about why off-road motorcycles are perhaps the only motorcycle form factor in which electric propulsion has an edge over ICE. You can design powerful powertrains, micro-control torque, and plonk in small batteries into exotic frames to manage weight. The package works as most riders ride less than an hour at a stretch. It helps that the riders also have passions high enough and pockets deep enough to shell out large sums of money.
Importantly, electric motocrossers can beat ICE on complexity, have better ease of operation, require lower maintenance, have swappable batteries, and yet maintain the same weight as ICE. In a nutshell, if anyone is dreaming of electric motorcycles, they should not look beyond electric motocrossers.
Then came the Stark tsunami as the Spanish startup, supported by the financial backing of India-based Royal Enfield, started delivering profitability, quarter after quarter. It was clear to any manufacturer or startup that the motocrossers were the way to go when it came to electric propulsion.
But motocrossers come in various places, and Stark had already decided that they wanted to be the best and sit on the highest pedestal in the market. Not everyone would like to replicate that. Stark has gone after weight with a vengeance and also delivered batteries and motors that remain unparalleled. The few other places where we hear the words “carbon sieve motor” with high five-digit-rpm speeds are the Tesla Model S Plaid.
Not every startup can replicate that.
Thankfully, some motocrossers are happy being just fun and moderately competitive, the so-called middle of the market. The world needs a lot of them. Not all of us are competitive. But all of us want to have fun. That was the core idea behind Dust Moto, the Oregon-based startup formed by electric motorcycle industry veterans Colin Godby, Neil Tierney, and Jarrett Volkoff. The Hightail is good, looks superb, and plays in the ‘65% of Stark Varg’ zone.
We interviewed Colin last year.
Dust Moto had a promising story, but like what happens with many promising brands, funding was a challenge after the PoC stage. That’s a pity, considering Stark was already a bona fide success, and motocrossers a proven bodystyle to convert to electric.
However, investors did not bite.
I have been talking regularly with Colin since the interview, and we took Dust Moto to a few very large
Indianglobal OEMs for strategic partnerships. However, investing in a small startup targeting lifestyle-electric-motorcycling was too much of a leap of faith for large OEMs making ICE commuter motorcycles. Things never went beyond the first round.
But all is well that ends well, as they say, and Livewire may be a much better home for Dust Moto.
Why Dust is Critical for Milwaukee
We have written about Livewire’s struggles at length. In 2024, the company sold 612 motorcycles. The year before, it was 660. The S2 platform — a phenomenal motorcycle otherwise — is not finding buyers. Volumes remain low, nowhere close to justifying the operating losses, which clocked in at USD 110.4 million for the full year. The guidance of 1,000–1,500 units for 2025 was ambitious. Getting there on the back of expensive street bikes, in a market where Americans have consistently refused to pay premium prices for electric motorcycles, was always going to be a long shot. We said as much in February 2025.
Livewire needed a new direction. It found one in an Oregon startup.
To be fair to Livewire, they remain truly American and continuously try things cooked up by their engineering labs. On the anvil is the S4 Honcho, a range of 125cc equivalent compact electric motorcycles.
The S4 range is weeks away from showrooms. It is what may save Livewire with sales numbers. Importantly, it includes an off-road fun moto as well. The current Livewire range forms a natural progression for any rider, something that the company emphasises strongly.
With the acquisition, the Hightail fits well between the S4 and the S2. In Livewire’s point of view, this would be a great progression for any rider, going from the age of 7 all the way to 70. Starting from the STACYC balance bikes for kids, where the rider learns how to get on two wheels, the rider migrates to the S4 Honcho in their teenage years. For extreme fun, there is the Dust Hightail for his youth. Then it’s over to the S2 and Livewire One for mature and experienced riders.
What is missing and what would definitely be added is a street-legal version of the Hightail.
The Hightail’s Strategic Fit
Dust Moto is not just another electric dirt bike company. Colin Godby, Dust’s CEO, and his co-founders, Neil and Jarett, came out of UBCO, where they spent years mapping the electric two-wheeler market before UBCO’s ill-fated strategy shift. They did not stumble into the off-road electric segment. They chose it deliberately, and more importantly, they chose a very specific corner of it.
The Dust Hightail targets the midweight class — not the Sur-Ron end of the spectrum, where a race to the bottom on cost is already well underway, and stays well away from Stark’s cut-throat high-performance motocross universe, where the Swedish outfit has first-mover advantage and Royal Enfield’s capital behind it.
Dust’s thesis, as Colin explained to us in February 2025, is that the mid-market is the most interesting one. Think of this as the 250cc motocross equivalent, while Stark targets the 450cc+ category. It has a seat height that most riders can handle, a weight target of sub-100 kg, power comparable to a 250cc four-stroke, and a portable battery.
The Hightail is, frankly, a well-considered product. The motor produces over 60 Nm of torque at the shaft, has a peak power of over 32 kW, with an integrated gearbox and final chain drive delivering over 650 Nm to the rear wheel. The frame is a traditional steel cradle — not integrated — which allowed Dust to make the battery removable and simplifies the path to market. 2170 cylindrical power cells, stateside battery assembly, and automotive-grade BMS principles round out the technical picture. This is a company that understood exactly where to push and where to use proven solutions.
Equally important is the brand intent. Colin was emphatic in his interview with InsightEV that Dust wanted to build something more like Porsche than like a race team. Clean, modern, and desirable. Approachable to new riders without losing credibility with the core moto crowd. In his words: performance, fun, approachability.
Why Livewire Needed This Badly
Livewire has two existential problems. They are related.
The first is product breadth. The S2 is a premium product at a premium price. It is targeted at a buyer who, empirically, does not exist in sufficient numbers in the American market. The KYMCO partnership was supposed to change this with maxi scooters on the S2 Arrow platform, and smaller mid-market motorcycles on an S3 platform — products that might have more appeal in international markets. That partnership has moved slowly. Too slowly. Livewire’s dealer network has been waiting. Investors have been waiting.
The second problem is the narrative. Livewire spun out of Harley-Davidson to be the future of electric motorcycling. What it ended up being, for too long, was an expensive street motorcycle company selling to a niche within a niche. The STACYC balance bike division — a theoretically sensible entry point for young riders — has been declining, losing money for many consecutive quarters, and is under pressure from cheaper Asian alternatives. Then there was the yawning gap between the upcoming S4 Honcho and the S2. It’s like jumping from 125cc to the 600cc class. That gap needed plugging.
The story Livewire needed to tell — of a company with a complete arc from entry-level to performance, from kids to enthusiasts, on-road and off-road — was impossible to tell without a new product range.
Dust Moto solves both problems with one transaction.
It gets Livewire a ‘90% there’ motorcycle, ready for series production. It also brings a capable team to the Milwaukee fold.
The Middle of the Market Is Where the Growth Is
Colin Godby’s market analysis, shared with us last year, is worth revisiting here because it directly explains why Livewire made this move.
The dirt bike industry has been flat for twenty years. ICE two-wheelers peaked in the early 2000s, had a COVID bump, and fell off again. Meanwhile, adjacent outdoor sports — mountain biking, skiing, and boating — tripled in the same period. The reason, Godby argued, is not that people stopped loving two wheels. The reason is that riding a dirt bike remained hard to learn, expensive to maintain, and restricted to fewer and fewer places. The friction never reduced.
Electric changes all of that. Reduced noise means more access. Single-speed operation means less cognitive load for new riders. Lower maintenance means less deterrence. And the Sur-Rons of the world have already created a cohort of under-18 throttle-capable riders who are comfortable on two wheels but have not yet crossed into powersports. They are the riders who have never been to a Harley dealership and never will — but they would ride a Dust Hightail.
What Livewire Brings to the Table
Dust Moto was — by its own admission — a small team working pragmatically. Colin was clear about this: outsource the solved problems, focus on the recipe. That approach got them to an impressive prototype and a clear product vision. It would not, by itself, get them to production at scale, to a global service network, or to the dealer relationships needed to move volume.
Livewire brings exactly what Dust needs. Manufacturing capability. Engineering resources at a level no startup can match. A global marketing and sales infrastructure, and, critically, Harley-Davidson’s dealer network, is a backstop for service and distribution.
The announcement confirmed that Livewire intends to advance Dust’s platform toward production, with more details on launch timing expected in the second half of 2026. That is a credible timeline. The Hightail was far enough along in development that it was not a concept — it was a rideable, tested machine. With Livewire’s resources, closing the gap between advanced prototype and production motorcycle is a matter of capital and execution, not a technology question.
The Strategic Picture
Livewire has accepted that the on-road premium electric motorcycle is not a sufficient business in North America. Not yet. Possibly not for years. Rather than waiting for the market to come to it, the company has moved to where the market already is and is growing: off-road, lighter, more accessible, more fun.
The off-road electric segment is the one corner of electric two-wheeling that has demonstrated genuine consumer pull. Stark has proven it the top of the market. Sur-Ron and Talaria have proven the bottom. The middle — Dust’s middle — has been conspicuously empty of a credible American brand. Livewire just placed its flag there.
The deeper insight — the one Colin articulated clearly and that Livewire has now structurally validated — is that the future of motorcycling in America does not run through the Harley dealership floor. It runs through trail access, through urban e-moto culture, through kids who grew up on Sur-Rons and want something bigger. Livewire needed to own that path. Now, arguably for the first time, it does.
What to Watch
The acquisition is done. The hard work starts now. A few things will determine whether this is transformative or merely interesting.
The first is price. The Hightail needs to hit the market at a number that reflects the mid-market positioning Dust always intended. A Livewire badge does not give it permission to become another expensive machine with slow adoption. The S2 Alpinista’s struggles are a cautionary tale here. If the Hightail lands north of $10,000 retail, the bridge-to-new-riders thesis falls apart quickly.
The second is brand. Livewire will need to resist the temptation to fully absorb Dust into its corporate identity. The Dust brand — young, approachable, story-driven, deliberately not racing-focused — speaks to an audience that a LiveWire badge alone does not reach. That audience notices inauthenticity fast.
Unfortunately, this is too much of an ask and Livewire will almost certainly etch its brand name somewhere on the Hightail.
The third is execution speed. Livewire promised more details in the second half of 2026. That clock is ticking. The mid-market will not stay empty.