Manufacturing Magazine May 2019 | Page 28

KTM

“ WE TRY TO TRANSFER WHAT WE ’ VE LEARNT FROM OFFROAD IN TERMS OF PRODUCT QUALITY AND EASE OF MAINTENANCE AND BRING THAT TO OUR STREET BIKES . WE ALWAYS WANT TO BE ON TOP OF TECHNOLOGY ”

— Luca Martin , Managing Director at KTM ASIA Motorcycle Manufacturing Inc
28 championship titles up into now . Martin wants to bring this same world class quality to Asia . “ We want to show the Asian market that KTM represents quality and more importantly , we ’ re ready to race . We want to bring this racing spirit to Asia and we truly believe there will be a bright future for big bikes in this market .” The firm won ’ t just rely on its legacy though : it ’ s keen to invest in new innovation so that it can create the best race machines in the market . “ One of our biggest competitive advantages is that we try to transfer what we ’ ve learnt from offroad in terms of product quality and ease of maintenance and bring that to our street bikes .
We always want to be always on top of technology .” KTM Group has also shrewdly kept track of emerging trends in the motorcycle space . For instance , whilst the firm noticed a dip in demand for superbikes they tapped into the growing uptick for smaller bikes . “ This was a strong move by KTM ,” notes Martin . “ We focused on smaller displacement bikes but our competitors didn ’ t .”
Just as consumer demands are shaking up the market , the rise of electrification could always change the
MARCH 2019