Here is how I would repair KTM if I was in charge – Jalopnik

Austrian motorcycle Megamark KTM is in Dree Street, but perhaps recovering. The company was in a stratospheric growth mode after a huge flowering in the sale in the post-Covid 19 Pandemic rush to get out, but as soon as the demand decreased, the company did not discuss production and lagged behind thousands of unsolved motorcycles and countless unpaid suppliers, employees and partners. After the local government had allowed a restructuring of the company and had released many (but not all) debts, the Indian motorcycle manufacturer Bajaj entered to give the bright orange a shot that desperately needed. Rumor has it that the deal Bajaj has cost around $ 900 million. It is clear that the way in which the company now works will not be in the future, because Bajaj will make some changes and hopefully will reduce KTM to solvency with a more conservative sales strategy.

For the time being we can only speculate about which changes Bajaj could make, but I am sure what I would do if I got the lead for the company for a few years. I have already given my opinion on how to rectify the good ship Harley-Davidson, and hopefully the new Dorky CEO of the bar and the Shield will follow my advice because I have not received the job. Maybe Bajaj will see my great ideas and send me a vacancy to board as the new CEO of KTM, or at least Vice President of Product. Let’s comment on the details of what KTM does well and what it could do better.

To begin with, and Sorry if this has already been raised, but KTM has tried to increase the income?

This is going to harm the feelings of at least a few KTM drivers, but their sports bike program must die a violent and creepy death. No matter how good the Duke and RC lines are, sports bikes are not what KTM is known for. Under my reign as head of the company, KTM would only take Dirt Bikes, Enduros, Double Sports, Adventure Bikes and Supermotos! If you want a European sports bike, buy a BMW or a Ducati. If you want a MotoGP race replica alone, call Honda or Aprilia. While we are busy, I also kill the MotoGP team. The company’s slogan is “ready to race”, but it has only won five MotoGP events in nine seasons of participation, and none has left the team at the end of the 2022 season since Miguel Oliviera. It is time to close it and save the millions of euros that the brand has to dump in this sport.

KTM has to regain his focus on the off-road segment, where it is best known. KTM is successful in off-road racing, and the market is attracting to buy more off-road power sports vehicles than the global economy can produce. The industry predicts that the off-road motorcycle segment will double From around $ 10 billion a year today to more than $ 20 billion by 2032, and KTM must be there to take advantage of the growth. People still want to go off-road on two wheels, and if KTM focused on improving quality, customer service and extending guarantees, this can again be the König of dirt.

The photo above shows the 100th KTM X-BOW (I will always pronounce it Ecks-Bow, not Cross-Bow as KTM wants me to have built that, and it was released as part of a business declaration that crashed his arrival on July 10 last year. The X-Bow was shown to the World Show in March 2008. The fact that KTM requires a good cent for this lightweight Audi-driven two seats, it could not have been a profitable company for the company and it must immediately switch off that nonsense.

The X-Bow is a very cool small car, and I will be sad to see it, but if KTM continues as a Going-Price, it must put an end to the madness of building a sports car with limited production. For many other companies, a car like this theoretically can be written off as a Halo vehicle, but Halo cars only really work if you actually build cars. Does anyone go to a KTM dealer to ogle an X-bow and then walk outside with a $ 7,000 cross bike? Sell ​​the tooling to a small boutique manufacturer as Lotus did with Caterham and never look back. The best time for KTM to decide that it would not have to build cars was 2008, but the second best time for KTM to decide that it should not build cars is now. This is an extremely difficult company, and most motorcycle manufacturers just don’t have what is needed to compete in the things with four wheeled Speys for rich Guys with EGOS.

Fortunately for the Bottom line of the company but not for lightweight sports car lovers, it is that the X-bow is on the chopping block and will probably make it for another year.

As it looks now, KTM also owns Husqvarna, gas gas. The company sells more or less the same Dirt Bikes in three different colors in three different brands and dealer networks. That should probably stop. By splitting into three different companies, it must have three separate marketing, distribution and sales channels, which leads to enormous inefficiencies. These companies must either be better differentiated or completely killed. Most beans would probably argue for gas gas to smoke, but not me, I have a better idea.

If I were KTM, I would start my plan by selling Husqvarna to get a huge injection of capital. You know if I was in charge. What do I need that injection of capital for? To enable the Spanish brand of gas gas to buy fellow Spanish brand Stark Future before it becomes a dominant power in the electric off-road world and too expensive for even Bajaj to afford. The Stark VARG is already such a good electric Dirtbike that it was banned from the X Games competition because it was too damn good! That is the type of brand that KTM needs in its portfolio, not from outside fighting. Electric is definitely the future of cross resources, and the irony of changing gas gas into a fully electric brand is simply too juicy for me to leave.

KTM had a controlling interest from MV Agusta for a while, but has already fallen that deal, so there is not much to worry about that front.

Adding a less expensive entry-level bike to the line-up would probably help KTM in the increasingly important developing markets of Global South. Working with Bajaj to adjust its 110cc engine, or even wholesale motorcycle models, to fairly off-road small and lightweight KTMS would be a serious blessing for the company. Perhaps the Bajaj Freedom 124 or CT110x would make a decent KTM for the Central and South American market, the African market or the Pacific islands, where desperate market share needs to grow.

Yes, so that’s how I would repair it. Sounds good?