It’s another twist in the KTM-MV Agusta team-up saga! Fresh after a KTM bigwigindicated his company’s desire to take control of MV Agusta, we now get The Other Side Of The Story. Timur Sardarov, the Russian/British financier who owns the vast majority of MV Agusta, says he is in no hurry to sell. He also says MV Agusta is planning to go full-steam ahead with the Lucky Explorer adventure bike, despite some shade thrown from KTM. (Of course, we expected that, since it’s beenconfirmed by regulatory documents).
Insider perspective
The comments come from an interview that Sardarov did with Motorrad (see the Google Translate versionhere). The write-up clarifies several details of the KTM-MV Agusta team-up. Here are the key points:
- KTM此次将为might want MV Agusta, but Sardarov is happy to remain in control for now.The financier says he’s fine with the blunt approach from the Austrian company, but he is in a five-year deal with KTM, and nothing will change in the next three-to-four years.
- The Lucky Explorer is coming, along with other ADV bikes.Sardarov actually says the three-cylinder adventure bike is now going to be the MV Agusta LXP, and the Lucky Explorer will only be one variant model, with other machines powered by that same engine. He says the company hopes to make 2,500-3,000 LXP models in 2023. However,he did not confirm the made-in-China 550 project was going ahead. That machine was intended to offer a low-cost model to cash-strapped buyers. Sardarov did say that MV Agusta doesn’t know how to build lower-cost motorcycles, and seemed to want to focus on the premium segment it traditionally inhabits.
- MV Agusta plans big-scale expansion.Sardarov says MV Agusta built about 2,000 bikes last year, and he wants to get to about 9,000 bikes built in 2023, then 12,000 next year. Funny, that’s what KTM said too… But instead of irritation at KTM’s take-charge attitude, Sardarov seems quite happy to be tied to a company full of go-getters.
For the full interview, head tothis English-language translation of the story.
