These are good times for the click-bait industry. It’s been a little rough for everyone else. In case you haven’t taken the bait, here’s what you missed: It’s the end of the world. KTM’s world, anyway, is imploding if you are to believe the blog-o-thorities. When you click, you get an interesting mix of facts and sort-of facts. Here’s the central point: KTM overproduced motorcycles in the wake of the Covid crisis. Demand decreased just as supply increased, resulting in an economic condition technically known as profundus stercus.
It started with Youtube thumbnails showing a Cartesian graph with a little KTM motorcycle crashing through the bottom of the X axis. The titles said anything and everything about KTM going out of business. It all was going down just as we were testing the MV Agusta Enduro Veloce adventure bike at the end of 2024. In that story we pointed out that after years of financial hardship, MV was finally under the financial umbrella of Pierer Mobility (KTM’s parent company) and would no doubt prosper as a result. That will not go down in history as the most poignant prediction to appear in the pages of Dirt Bike. MV Agusta was tossed overboard shortly after the crisis hit. Now, that company is back in the fold of its former owners, a Russian group called Art of Mobility S.A. We received letters politely accusing us of being clueless. Fair enough.
In our defense, the primary product of Dirt Bike is a monthly print magazine. We have a website, a Youtube channel and various social media outlets to support that mission, but at the end of the day, we print a magazine–that’s where we put the bulk of our resources. And, the one real shortcoming of that is that we can’t delve into news topics that change rapidly.
I’ll attempt a brief catch-up with information from the Pierer Industrie Company Presentation dated March, 2025. KTM’s “bankruptcy” is actually a situation known as “restructuring proceedings with self administration” under Austrian law, and it concerns KTM AG, which is a subsidiary of Pierer Mobility AG, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Pierer Industrie AG. Stefan Pierer–the man who saved KTM in its last financial crisis 34 years ago–stepped down as the CEO of KTM AG, but still calls the shots at Pierer Industrie. Under self administration, KTM promises to pay its creditors 30 percent of its debt in May. How much money is that? Pierer acknowledges 2 billion Euros of total debt, but figures are all over the board, as real creditors get confused with those who claim to be creditors. No matter what, it’s a lot. Upon payment of this cash quota, all liabilities are supposed to be fully settled.
As of right now, KTM AG in Austria is not producing motorcycles. That sounds like the company is shut down, but the assembly line is only one phase of the operation. Another is management of existing inventory–which is said to be a full year’s supply according to pseudo information on the web. And, motorcycles with the KTM name are still being produced. Pierer’s partner Bajaj in India is producing the upcoming 390 Enduro E and 390 Adventure, which will debut in America this winter. After the assembly line in Austria fires up, production volume is to be reduced by approximately one third to around 150,000 motorcycles. Additionally, KTM has promised a reduction of approximately 1800 employees, and the E-bike business under the Husqvarna and GasGas names is said to “wind down.” The reason that KTM is up front about these cuts is to help attract investment in order to pay the cash quota.
What does all this mean to knucklehead motorcycle riders like me? I don’t think KTM is going anywhere. I’m guessing that the investment has already been arranged behind closed doors. Bajaj, and CF Moto expressed early interest. The rumors that BMW will get involved might or might not be true. It is worth noting that BMW survived the post-covid crunch better than most of the rest of the motorcycle industry.
KTM has a history of making money. In 2023, KTM sold more motorcycles than ever before–372,511, which was a 3.7 percent increase over 2022–which was the previous record-breaking year. All this started because of a 23 percent decrease in 2024. The surplus of unsold motorcycles might be worth 3 billion, which is a pretty good chunk of collateral. The 800 million Euros that KTM needs right now sounds like a preposterously large figure, but only to preposterously little brains like mine.
If I’m wrong, don’t write.
The post KTM AND THE FUTURE: THE WRAP appeared first on Dirt Bike Magazine.
