Stefan Pierer, big boss of the KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas conglomerate says there’s a new made-in-China 750 coming soon, and also divulged other juicy details in a recent interview with an Italian mag.
In the January 5 interview withInmoto.it, Pierer said KTM sold its 790 engine design to Chinese partner CFMoto, and CFMoto plans to build bikes based on that platform. Those machines will be KTM-branded, at least in some markets, and released in March, 2022, wearing a 750 badge.
Pierer says the Chinese-built engines won’t be identical to KTM’s 790 (now replaced by the 890), but considering they’re using the same blueprints, we’d expect a lot of similarity. For now, Pierer says there’s no plan to also make Husqvarna machines based around the 750 platform. Instead, there will be Duke, Supermoto and Adventure models available, as entries into the KTM brand.
None of this should come as a surprise. From the very beginning of the 790 series, rumour had it that production was headed to China. KTM has been moving into closer and closer partnership with CFMoto for the past five years, just as it did with India-based Bajaj in the five years before that. Indeed, Pierer’s comments seem to hint the current 890 run will also be produced in China eventually, and he said KTM’s Chinese production will look similar to its deal with India for the 390 series’ production.
Pierer’s interview also re-hashed what we already know about the parallel twin 490 series. These bikes will be built in India, with an Adventure and Duke version, with Husqvarna and KTM models based on that engine.
As well, Pierer also repeated his comments on GasGas: While it’s based in Spain for now, KTM’s bigwigs plan to move most of the operation to Austria and add roadgoing GasGas machines. They’re putting together a GasGas team for Moto3, and hope to have 125cc-400cc street bikes in the next couple of years. KTM does plan on keeping GasGas trials bike production in Spain, and Pierer says the company is still working on hard on developing an electric trials machine.
