KTM PRESIDENT/CEO STEFAN PIERER: PART 2
P118
Interview
Click here if you missed part one of
our interview with Pierer.
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY EMANUEL TSCHANN
H
ow many KTMs have been built in India so
far?
Since we began in 2011, we so far built
515,000 bikes up to the end of 2018. Last year they
built 100,000 units, and a bit more than half of that
stays in India and Indonesia, with the rest distributed
worldwide, from Austria to the USA, from Australia to
wherever. It's a very successful cooperation, and Rajiv
[Bajaj] and I each found the right partner! In 2006
when we met up, they were looking for a technology
partner, and we were looking for a low-cost production
partner in the biggest market of the world, which is
India. We got introduced by an Austrian guy, a banker
who worked with us on the first IPO in '96. We met for
the first time in '07 at the Geneva Car Show where we
presented our X-Bow for the first time, and the chemis-
try worked immediately, so it all came from there.
So far though, Bajaj has only made single-
cylinder KTM products. Is there a capacity ceiling
for such bikes, and will you only ever have singles
made in India, or could there be twins, too?
No, because we're jointly working on a 500cc twin,
which will be 100 percent developed at the Bajaj R&D
center in Pune, but which is supported by our R&D
guys. It's a parallel twin similar to the format we have
on the 790, only 500cc because that's the future
premium class in emerging markets, as well as an A2
license bike. I believe we both have really state-of-the-
art R&D operations in each company—we have 700
people on our side, and their counterpart in Pune has
1000 people. The two leading guys, Phillipp Habsburg
Our in-depth one-
on-one interview
with KTM president
Stefan Pierer
continues. In part
two of our two-
part feature, we
discuss E-bikes, a
Husqvarna twins flat
track team, cruisers
and the possibility
of building a
manufacturing
plant on U.S. soil.
Could that actually
happen?
TALKING
ALL
THINGS
KTM
