INTERVIEW
KTM PRESIDENT/CEO STEFAN PIERER PART I
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solutely on track for that, and even slightly ahead
of schedule.
At present the Bajaj-built KTM range con-
sists of the naked Duke and the RC sportbike
models. You told me two years ago you envis-
aged a dual-purpose enduro range being
built there, too. Will that still happen?
Not yet. Not an enduro model as such. The next
new models that are coming out of India are the
Vitpilen and Svartpilen concept bikes that you saw
in Milano on the Husqvarna stand. These are based
on the Duke rolling chassis, and those two concept
models you have seen are very close to the produc-
tion versions. In the 2017 model year they will be on
the dealer's floor, so we start production with the
new Husqvarnas at the end of 2016.
It seems you made a success of turning
Husqvarna around post-BMW?
Husqvarna sales in 2014 were the all-time high-
est in 110 years, 15,000 units, which I admit was
beyond my expectations. I believed the brand
had a huge potential, especially in the U.S., but
I didn't expect how smoothly the integration of
Husaberg into Husqvarna went. Nobody is talking
anymore about Husaberg. Everybody is glad that
Husqvarna is there, and that's all that counts.
Secondly, those Husqvarna customers are happy
to get a really serious high-quality product, to be
able to get spare parts, and to be very competi-
tive on the same level as KTM. So it all worked
out. In some areas for sure there's a little com-
petition between these two brands within the
same family, which sometimes is not that easy to
handle, but overall it works well, very well. And I'm
especially impressed with what's going on in the
States with Husqvarna.
Are you satisfied that you succeeded in
differentiating the two brands, so that the
customer doesn't see a Husqvarna as a re-
badged KTM?
Pierer (middle
left) with the KTM
Board celebrating
the 100,000th
motorcycle built
at the Mattighofen
factory.
