New Husqvarna Vitpilen and Svartpilen models confirmed for production and will arrive in 2017.
Although this was something that we’ve already long suspected, KTM’s sister brand Husqvarna also broke its silence surrounding its plans for the Vitpilen and Svartpilen. Previewed as concepts previously, production plans for both the Husqvarna Vitpilen and Svartpilen models have been confirmed with Husqvarna reportedly eyeing market entry by 2017.
This revelation was made in the annual KTM AG investors report that was just released. This, along with the KTM brand’s plans to develop a new parallel-twin engine was amongst the things disclosed in the report. (Read about KTM’s new parallel-twin engine development here)
Perhaps this is why KTM AG is opting to fully privatise itself as these annual investor’s reports likely indicates such plans that are otherwise secret amongst other rivalling manufacturers.
Back to Husqvarna, and KTM AG isn’t stating too many details but the report confirms that the first two production machines will be the Vitpilen 401 and Vitpilen 701 twins that are due next year. KTM’s annual report states: “For 2017 the next step will be realized with the arrival of the first two Vitpilen production models.”
To refresh your memory, the Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 concepts was first shown during EICMA 2014. Underpinning the KTM 390 Duke platform – both chassis and powertrain – the Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 concept streetbike was also previewed alongside the Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 scrambler offshoot as well.
The larger Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 concept, on the other hand, was shown later at last year’s EICMA show instead. Again, this Husky concept is based upon the KTM Duke naked platform, this time on the larger and more power KTM 690 Duke instead.
Like our report on KTM’s new engine development, it is the choice of words it uses in this investor’s reports that signal plenty of things. For instance, the statement of “the first two Vitpilen production models” likely indicates plans to make more variants and offshoots, and perhaps the idea that the Vitpilen model line up will have more than two variants at least.
With this, it is easy to see that KTM AG plans to transform Husqvarna into Europe’s third largest motorcycle manufacturer after KTM and rivals BMW Motorrad by the year 2020.
Sources: Asphaltandrubber / Visordown
