Cycle News

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 15, 2019 P87 Moto3? In the engine, in the chassis—what is it that KTM is lacking to turn the tables on them? I don't like that situation. It's because we were focused on Mo- toGP, so we collected all the good people there, and didn't have the best people in Moto3—that's it. That's another reason for leaving Moto2—we decided, let's focus on the small class, where we came in almost 10 years ago and won straight away, and while MotoGP is still the priority, you can expect something very special in Moto3 from next year onwards, trust me. Moto3 is the collecting platform for future talents, Moto2 needs just one highly professional team with Aki to bring those young tal- ents through, and MotoGP is the pinnacle. Why go Moto3 racing with Husqvarna—to establish it as a street brand? Yes, to help the public get the perception of Husqvarna as a street brand, Honda is also rac- ing there, so why not Husqvarna? I understand you've sold the rights of a specific KTM en- gine to your partners in China, CFMoto. What are they going to do with it? We have transferred our 790 parallel-twin to the joint venture we have with them, so instead of putting in money, we handed over our intellectual property. And based on that engine platform, we helped them source everything in China to create an almost identical engine, but with reduced toleranc- es and some detail differences, the performance is a little bit less than we have here in Europe. And this is for only the Chi- nese market? It's mainly for the Chinese mar- ket, but also we're talking with CF- Moto about how to distribute their motorcycles outside China. They have some nice products which [KTM designer] Gerald Kiska has played a part in creating, and No, not as a KTM, but perhaps as a Husqvarna, or maybe for a third brand, which would then allow us to enter a developing market with a relatively sophisticated, high perfor- mance. I didn't expect such a positive development because to deal with China, you always have to be very careful—but I'm very happy working with the Lai family, which is differ- ent from most other typical Chinese entrepreneurs. It's a real trustworthy family, and I appreciate that. You spoke about a third brand. Can you reveal what this will be? Basically, we've agreed to acquire a controlling interest in GasGas in Spain, where we've set up a new company in which we have the ma- jority stake. We've signed an agree- ment. But what we're doing with GasGas is clear, because we are still missing the last product in the off- road world, which is a trials bike, and GasGas has been a leading brand in that sector for many, many years. Secondly, for sure, we will follow a similar strategy to Husqvarna, so we will use KTM's platforms to create a new GasGas Enduro range, and what I can reveal to your readers now is that we will also enter motocross with GasGas, too, in all classes. Then we will have three different brands to beat the Japanese with- that's very cool! Will these bikes have KTM engines? The engine platform will be KTM, with small modifications like in the car industry—just as we discussed earlier. Will you keep production of GasGas in Spain, or will you "FORTUNATELY ONE OF THE BIGGEST AND BEST DECISIONS WE'VE MADE WAS TO SIGN DANI PEDROSA AS OUR TEST RIDER, BECAUSE HE WAS THE GUY WHO REALLY DID THAT FOR HONDA, AND HE'S A TRULY EXCELLENT TECHNICAL GUY!" we're very satisfied with our coop- eration with them. The size of the company fits well with KTM, and we have a good relationship, so now, let's see what's coming out. But their 790 engine is already on the test bench, and in a year's time, they'll start production of their own 2021 models, with the MT800 or suchlike up first. And we're already talking internally about which brand we should put in on that bike. So you would adopt it as a KTM product?

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