Harley-Davidson released Its 2026 Q2 financial resultsAnd despite previously expressed company sentiment that this year could be tough, things are looking cautiously optimistic. Has America’s most famous motorcycle company finally turned a corner?
Let’s start with the basics, if you’re not familiar with the way a motor company reports things. There are three Harley-flavored reporting buckets and one LiveWire-flavored reporting bucket that appear on their financial reports.
First, there’s Harley-Davidson, Incorporated, which consolidates all other branches under a single orange and black umbrella for revenue-reporting purposes. Next, there’s Harley-Davidson Motor Company (HDMC), which makes gas-powered motorcycles, parts and accessories, and apparel. Then there’s Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS), which is largely self-explanatory. And finally, there’s LiveWire, which covers all types of EV motorbikes from the company, including both LiveWire and STACYC. I’ll explore the LiveWire results in more depth in a separate article, so for now we’re going to focus on the Harley-Davidson side of the company here.
About Harley’s Q2 2026 Motorcycle Sales
Year-over-year, worldwide Harley retail motorcycle sales increased approximately 1% in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the second quarter of 2025. In numbers, the company reports sales of 42,500 bikes in Q2 2026, while 42,300 bikes were sold in Q2 2025.
However, how those sales are distributed around the world varies slightly. In North America, sales grew nearly 3%, to 29,800 bikes in the second quarter of 2026, compared to 28,900 bikes in the same period in 2025. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (collectively referred to as EMEA), sales declined 9% year over year. There, they are expected to decline from 7,600 in 2025 to 7,000 in 2026. Asia Pacific regional sales remained steady, at 5,000 bikes for the day. And in Latin America, sales increased 4% year-over-year, from 700 to 800.
Quarterly revenue for the HDMC segment increased slightly in 2025, from $1,044,000 in Q2 2026 to $1,104,000, an increase of 6% year-over-year. It might not be the sexiest thing to suggest that slow, sustainable growth is good (not quite ‘move fast and break things’ of me, is it?), but these are challenging times, both inside and outside the motorcycle industry. It seems that a slight increase is better than this No development, right? Before you can get well again, you have to stop the bleeding.
If so, why are Harley-Davidson, Inc.’s consolidated results and earnings declining?
You may have noticed that we haven’t talked about Harley-Davidson Financial Services here yet, and that’s the biggest reason. In its release, Harley notes that its financial services arm is down a full 55% from this time in 2025, which it largely attributes to “the sale of loan assets that occurred in the second half of 2025.” Because it sold those loans, it was no longer taking payments on those loans, which makes sense. What does “down 55%” look like in real numbers? HDFS earned $117 million in Q2 2026, compared to $257 million in Q2 2025.
And so, when you add all these things together (along with the livewire results we’ll discuss separately), you get a slight decline in consolidated revenues, which is down about 6% in Q2 2026. The actual number reported is $1,230 million for Q2 2026, compared to $1,307 million for Q2 2025.
Thanks to these results, Harley raised its financial guidance for the remainder of 2026
We’re not talking about pie-in-the-sky numbers here; Just small, seemingly realistic bounces ahead of its initial forecast at the beginning of the year. While it still expects LiveWire to post an operating loss of $70 to $80 million, it is now expecting HDMC global motorcycle sales in the 133,500 to 138,500 range instead of the 130,000 to 135,000 range as previously reported. In terms of operating income, HDMC is also expected to make between $10 million and $50 million, whereas the previously forecast range was between a loss of $40 million and a profit of $10 million.
Cautious optimism may not be the most exciting thing, but if you’re a company, it probably beats the doom and gloom, right? Correct. Hopefully things will continue to improve in the third quarter.
