Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 CASTIGLIONI SPEAKS W ith production - and more importantly, sales - ramping up inexorably on a global basis, MV Agusta plans to fuel this growth by launching three new models at the 2013 EICMA Milan Show in November. All of them will be three-cylinder bikes, one a derivation of an existing model, and two completely new. So says company owner Giovanni Castiglioni, who reveals that one of these will be an 800cc sports tourer, developed as a more affordable, more accessible alternative to the Ducati Multistrada 1200. "Those three new models are in addition to the Rivale 800, which will be making its public debut at EICMA after entering production right on schedule in October" says Castiglioni, 32, the only son of the late Claudio. Under his direction, MV Agusta has enjoyed significant growth in a short time, with production scheduled to rise to 8000 motorcycles in 2013 on the back of sales of 6500 units in 2012 – a significant level of growth after selling only 2213 bikes in 2009, and just 3687 in 2011. "We have a five-year plan which calls for 10,000 bikes in 2014, and a conservative eventual target of 12,000 in 2015, all of them made in our present factory in Varese, which has a maximum annual production ceiling of 20,000 motorcycles," says Castiglioni. Some 2500 bikes of the 2013 production will be four-cylinder models, split between 1300 examples of the naked F4 Brutale, and 1200 fully faired F4 sportbikes. Of these, around 700 units will be the top-of-the-line F4RR introduced in February, which has been gaining market share in the one-liter Superbike class. "The 1000cc sportsbike market is shrinking globally, and especially in Europe," says Giovanni. "But our competitors are suffering worse than we are, so our market share is increasing." Castiglioni plans to hold annual production of the four-cylinder bikes at 2500 units into the foreseeable future, with all MV Agusta's mushrooming growth coming from the triples, especially with an expanded range due to debut at EICMA, featuring MV's acclaimed 800cc F3 engine. "The most important of these, and our main target for 2014, is to make the best sports tourer in the marketplace with our 800 engine, though of course this will P37 very different in character from the version in the F3 and even the Brutale, because it will be more smooth in power delivery, and less racy in character," reveals Castiglioni. "But I don't want to make just another such bike like the many others in the market right now – it's getting pretty crowded there, so we must make something which stands out. We're going for a midsize motorcycle which will be 20-30kg lighter than, say, a Ducati Multistrada, with lots of torque and almost as much horsepower." You can't talk about MV Agusta and not think of racing, and they returned to the rostrum earlier this year at World Championship level for the first time since 1976, when Roberto Rolfo finished third in Donington Park's World Supersport round in May. So MV Agusta has made a successful return to World Championship racing just at a time when the World Superbike rules are being revised to reduce costs. Does this make it attractive for Castiglioni to join in? "Yes, we will enter the World Superbike series soon - realistically in 2015, because I want to focus on Supersport next season after our development year, though we will start developing a bike already next winter in conjunction with our partners ParkinGO." Alan Cathcart

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