VOLUME 56 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 15, 2019 P81
think that's the best. But it's clear
that Royal Enfield is now growing
very fast, and the small displace-
ment Husqvarnas are perfect for
countering that by targeting the
premium end of the market, which
is very big in India.
Rajiv also told me that he
didn't think there was a market
for street enduros in India, and
now with your forthcoming
KTM 390 Adventure, which
he's manufacturing, it seems
he's changed his mind!
That came from developments
in emerging markets like Latin
America, as well as in India and
Asian markets, but for sure it's
coming, and even Royal Enfield
tried to launch such a bike.
Yes, their Himalayan Adven-
ture tourer seems to have been
a success.
It's not a success, although
the product from a distance looks
good, but for sure it's—look, an
adventure bike is a bike for riding
long distances, and to create
such a bike is the most difficult
task you can set yourself. It's
very easy to make a naked bike
compared to a long-distance,
dual-purpose street enduro. We
learned that 20 years ago when
we started with the 950 Adven-
ture—that taught me a lesson!
So will the future growth of
Husqvarna be mainly on-road
rather than off-road?
In off-road, I think we have
a huge market share, and this
market will remain more or less
stable at the present size. So the
big growth will come from on-road,
Pierer has
built KTM into
the number-
one motorcycle
manufacturer
in Europe,
surpassing
even BMW.
from street bikes, both small dis-
placement and midsize, and in the
midterm, we are also launching the
Husqvarna twin-cylinder range as
a 2022 model, with the new 890
parallel-twin engine which will be
unveiled at EICMA this year.
share them among your different
brands; otherwise, you'll run out
of money. I've learned that from
the car industry, where they're
doing it perfectly. Look at VW,
Audi, Skoda and SEAT—it works,
it's a proven strategy. When we
"OUR V4 IS
FOCUSED
ENTIRELY ON
CLOSED COURSE
HIGH-END
COMPETITION,
NAMELY
MOTOGP."
So will this be a KTM gener-
ated re-run of the 900 Nuda
from the BMW era?
I didn't look back, because
as a racer you can't do that or
you'll start losing—you must
always keep looking ahead!
No, it's clear—what we are do-
ing is basically very similar to
the car industry. The engine
platform is the most expensive
part of development, espe-
cially in motorcycling. You have
to create such platforms then
took over Husqvarna nobody
expected it, I took it over with a
6000 annual production, and now
we have 50,000, so that's now
established as an on-road brand.
But it's also a big help to have two
brands in a family which contrast
with one another because KTM is
a very sharply positioned brand—
it's ready to race, it's always
trying to be in pole position on
the starting grid. If you show up
with a KTM, everybody's expect-
ing a good hard motorcycle, and
