Listen, guys. Whether you're a Harley-Davidson motorcycle fan or not, the numbers over the past several years haven't been good. That's not an opinion; that's a fact.
We did a Data Deep Dive piece on it in Q3 of 2024 to illustrate the trends over time, so if you haven't been following the twists and turns on a quarterly basis, go check it out. But now it's February 2025, and the brand's full Annual Report for last year is out. Did those crazy kids on Juneau Avenue manage to pull off a bottom-of-the-ninth, game-saving miracle in Q4?
Sadly, they did not. And the numbers, they're bad. Again.
But how bad are they? Let's just say that if the MoCo was your child, and they came home from school with these numbers on their report card, you'd probably ground them immediately. Enough waffling to try to soften the blow, though; let's get into the numbers.
To keep things simple, we'll talk about Q4 2024 and the full-year 2024 results separately.
We'll start with Q4 of 2024. As a reminder, Harley-Davidson's financial reports break the company down into three distinct divisions. There's Harley-Davidson Motor Company (HDMC), which covers all the traditional, combustion-powered motorcycles (and trikes), as well as parts and accessories. Then there's Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS), which covers financing of the vehicles it sells. Finally, there's LiveWire, which covers all its EV properties (that's LiveWIre and the StaCyc balance bike brand for kids).
Harley-Davidson Motor Company Q4 2024 Results
For Q4 of 2024, Harley-Davidson Motor Company reported a total revenue of $420 million. That might sound like a lot until you consider that it's down an entire 47% as compared to Q4 of 2023. Worse, HDMC also reported an operating loss of $214 million.
In fact, of the three reporting divisions, only HDFS saw modest revenue growth in Q4 of 2024. By how much? Four percent. While that number on its own might not be anything to turn cartwheels over, it sure beats the -47% revenue for HDMC and the -32% revenue for LiveWire. It's all relative, right?
Taken together, that means as a whole, Harley-Davidson's Q4 2024 revenues were $688 million, which is down 35% over Q4 of 2023. Furthermore, it reported a Q4 2024 operating income loss of $193 million.
But if you look at the full 2024 annual report, it's both better and worse, depending on your perspective.
Harley-Davidson Motor Company 2024 Annual Results
For the entirety of 2024, HDMC's reported revenue was $4,122 million, which is down 15% year-on-year over 2023. Operating income for the HDMC unit was $278 million, which is at least in the black. However, where it looks distinctly not great is in how it compares to 2023. How bad is it? Operating income is down by 58% as compared to 2023, which surely has to be making some company accountants somewhere gulp uncomfortably.
When taken in total with the HDFS and LiveWire units, that means Harley-Davidson took in $5,187 million in annual revenue for 2024, which is down 11% over 2023. Total operating income for 2024 was $417 million, which is down 47% over 2023. I'll stress here that those numbers are still in the black, but it's certainly not the direction that any company wants to find itself going in.
2024 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Shipments and Sales
Now that we've talked about revenue and income figures, how did Harley-Davidson's actual motorcycle shipments and sales go in 2024? Also not great. As a reminder, Harley-Davidson's reports separate motorcycle shipments to dealers from motorcycle retail sales to customers, hence the different figures represented here.
Overall, HDMC reports that global motorcycle shipments in 2024 totaled 148,862 bikes. That's down 17% as compared to 2023.
As for retail motorcycle sales, those were also down both in Q4 of 2024 and for the full year of 2024, as well.
For Q4 of 2024, retail sales worldwide were down 15%. In each of the four geographic regions that HDMC records sales, sales were down negative percentages across the board. North American sales were down 13 percent; Europe/the Middle East/Africa sales were down 7%; Asia Pacific sales were down 26 percent; and Latin America sales were also down 7%.
For the whole of 2024, HDMC motorcycle sales were down 7% worldwide, which is slightly better than the Q4 2024 number on its own. As for regional sales, North American sales were down 4%; EMEA sales were down 11%; Asia Pacific sales were down 18%; and Latin America sales remained flat for the entirety of 2024.
What Does This Mean For Harley-Davidson In 2025?
In addition to releasing its Q4 2024 and full year 2024 figures, Harley-Davidson also issued its 2025 financial guidance ahead of the new year. According to the MoCo, it's expecting revenues in 2025 to remain flat or be down by about 5% by the year's end. The same is also true of its forecasted earnings per share.
Times are tough, but can Harley-Davidson weather them? Watch this space.
