Might need to change the Austrian section to Chinese section before too long. Ol' Steffy might be selling us down the river! 25 acre site near completed in China for CF Moto/KTM assembly. Apparently they have a stake in CF Moto & have already produced an RC8(?) China spec! I'd hazard a guess & say won't be long before KTM/Husky being manufactured there. Bet the price won't go down though!
I would guess for the Asian market, maybe the Americas and Oz too. Big tarifs to import into the EU though.
Apparently all production will move from Austria to Chinatown within 2 years! This is not gospel I must stress.
Already a bunch of KTM and husky being built in China and India, have been for years. BMW and many brands are building bikes in India now.
KTM and Bajaj auto have been joined at the hip since 2010 in India. That's quite awhile. http://www.indiancarsbikes.in/motorcycles/capex-plans-bajajktm-125cc-motorcycle-boosted-200cc-23562/
Yeah but not bikes that we either can buy or generally would ride. Seems it's only to dodge import tariffs into China so easier to set up manufacturing there for Chinese bike market. Seemingly dirtbikes will stay in Austria....for now!
I believe all the 390 and smaller bikes are made in India. I've been seeing a lot of 390's around here. I'm guessing the new vitpilen 701 & svartpilen 701 are also built in India.
The Scambler series from Ducati are made in Taiwan. The last air cooled bikes were supposed to be the sport classics but building in Taiwan made the new bikes more affordable and allowed them to create a new market. If the quality is maintained buyers win. I think Ducati also has limited production facilities too so less requirement to tool up in Italy.
I think most these companies building off shore have extensive quality departments within these manufactures to insure quality. BMW I know does. It would be imperative to do so. The quality on the KTM 390 looks no different than the Austrian build bikes. Kia now builds 70K 365 HP high end cars now (Kia Stinger). Manufacturing has become a science and it is becoming more and more less important where things come from from a quality standpoint.
Be good if they built some SWM 2 strokes, then let us judge. Or not. But never, ever should EXC’s come out of anywhere but Mattighoffen.
