Corporate communication has never been Pierer Mobility AG's and KTM's strength, and this hasn't changed in the turbulent past twelve months. In the second half of 2024, the disastrous financial situation was acknowledged only piecemeal, before the cards were laid on the table on December 20th, 2024, and insolvency proceedings had to be filed with the Ried im Innkreis Regional Court (Upper Austria). By this time, debts had accumulated, amounting to a staggering €.1.8 to €.2.2 billion Euros.
Regarding the number of unsold motorcycles alone, KTM repeatedly cited contradictory figures. While, on the one hand, an inventory of 130,000 motorcycles was communicated, in November 2024, some business partners were told that it had an inventory of 70,000 motorcycles, allegedly consisting primarily of 2025 models. In reality, according to Neumeister, "more than 70,000 motorcycles" were already sitting unsold after 2022. The new CEO, Gottfried Neumeister, officially stated in a letter to dealers, importers, partners, and customers on May 22nd, 2025, that there would be 182,000 unsold motorcycles by the end of 2024.
Recently, in an interview with Australian Motor Cycle News (AMCN), Neumeister stated: "When I arrived at KTM, there were 270,000 motorcycles. 70,000 of our own stock and 200,000 at dealers and importers worldwide." With such a confusing array of figures, it's no wonder that Pierer Mobility's share price is still plummeting.
Also the recent statements by the presumed future majority owner, Rajiv Bajaj from India, are not helping to strengthen confidence in the KTM, Husqvarna, and GASGAS brands and the new management. One out of two motorcycles produced by the Pierer Group is already manufactured in Asia. Suppliers and employees in the Innviertel region are, therefore, worried that even more jobs will be relocated to India.
The recent statements by the uncompromising Indian entrepreneur, Rajiv Bajaj, in an interview with CNBC-TV18.com added further fuel to the fire. The Bajaj CEO transferred almost €.600 million Euros by May 23rd, 2025, to save KTM AG from collapse. And Bajaj is aware that the Pierer Group will probably never again achieve the record results of 2023. Back then, the sale of 381,555 motorcycles generated a record turnover of €.2.6 billion Euros.
"Fundamentally, there are two worlds of motorcycles out there. There is one world of the volume brands, such as Honda, Yamaha, Enfield, TVS, Bajaj, etc., and this is roughly an industry size of fifty million vehicles," Bajaj told CNBC.TV18.com. "Of course, moped scooters, step-through motorcycles all put together. This is the mass of the volume space. And then there is the more premium or lifestyle space that is dominated by Western brands, such as KTM, Triumph, Ducati, BMW, and Harley. These are the better known ones. And this is an annual industry size of a little under one million a year. So it's fifty million motorcycles here and one million there. And, quite frankly, these are very different businesses, different business models, obviously, because the scale is very different."
Bajaj: "The levers of the brand, technology, quality, cost, distribution work very differently in these two spaces. In the last twenty years, we have always been convinced that the Bajaj brand is very appropriate, very competitive in the first world of fifty million vehicles, where we have a lot of headroom to grow, because we are under five million in an industry size of fifty million worldwide. But, however, we have the humility to understand that our brand is not going to carry over effectively in terms of pricing power, let us say in the second world of premium or lifestyle products. And that is where the association with KTM and Triumph is really invaluable for us."
It is largely unknown in the motorcycle business that Bajaj has also agreed on a close, long-term cooperation with the British manufacturer Triumph. And Bajaj makes no secret of the fact that Triumph prepared itself much earlier and better for the challenges of the global motorcycle business than the Pierer Group.
"The second thing that leads to brand diffusion is this proliferation of SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) that makes the business very complex, right from R&D to the dealer workshop," Rajiv Bajaj said. "First, we have to restore the KTM brand to the core, and from that will follow a great simplification of the operations, which will have a very salutary effect on the company. We definitely have to reset the cost. To put it very simply and bluntly, European manufacturing is dead. The auto industry, including the car industry, understands that now they would have the political, social, and other types of obligations, that is why they cannot move everything out of Europe to somewhere in Asia to produce more competitively. But let me take Triumph as an example. Mr. Bloor, moved one hundred percent of Triumph production to Thailand over fifteen years ago. Every single Triumph motorcycle that is made today is made either in Thailand and, of course, more recently, in India. If Triumph was able to do this fifteen years ago, in principle, why not KTM?"
Bajaj explained, while KTM struggles in Europe, the KTMs that are produced and exported out of India to different parts of the world bring a EBITDA margin of over thirty percent. "And the main reason for that is the great cost competitiveness that India and the Indian supply chain and our excellent suppliers offer. We have to reset the cost of KTM. We have to restore the brand. And if they are able to do this effectively, then I think KTM has a very bright future. That is fundamentally the reason why it was necessary for Bajaj to step in when it became necessary because of this crisis that came upon KTM to keep this brand going, to keep this operation going. Because, even for us, from a business point of view, it is a significant revenue and a significant contribution to our bottom line."
"Scale up is not the most important thing for KTM," Bajaj added, when talking to CNBC. "In this world of premium brand motorcycles, the industry size is about 800,000 a year. Market shares do not move by much. The qualitative metrics are more important here. We have obviously been grappling with this issue for the last six months. Almost the entire KTM senior management team was here in India for two days. And I can tell you that the road ahead rests fundamentally on these two thoughts. First, we have to restore the brand. As unfortunately happens sometimes with success, you tend to diffuse the brand by extending it into too many categories, too many segments, even beyond the core segment."
Rajiv Bajaj, through his Bajaj Auto International Holdings B.V. (Bajaj BV), currently owns 49.9% of Pierer Bajaj AG. The 50.1% majority stake belongs to Pierer Industrie AG, which holds 50.1% of the shares. The Austrian holding company, Pierer Bajaj AG, holds approximately 74.9% of the shares in PIERER Mobility AG, which operates the KTM, Husqvarna, and GASGAS brands.
Rajiv Bajaj has long since realized that the production volume of 150,000 motorcycles planned by CEO Gottfried Neumeister in the 2025 fiscal year is unlikely to be achieved. Therefore, he is demanding further restructuring and cost-cutting measures, including new negotiations with suppliers in Austria as part of the cost-cutting program.
Neumeister confidently stated as early as May 2025: "Bajaj would not have transferred six hundred million euros if they wanted to close down KTM or relocate all production to India." Neumeister no longer wants to comment on Rajiv Bajaj's critical statements. Already, in May, in an ORF TV interview, he avoided making a clear statement on the long term security of the Mattighofen site. "That is a difficult question. But, at the moment, it is not even a question of closing something or relocating something."
This time, after the unequivocal statements from his boss, Rajiv Bajaj, referring to Triumph's business model, Neumeister limited himself to a brief written statement: "There are currently no plans to relocate production."
On August 28th, Pierer Mobility AG published its key financial figures for the first half of 2025. As feared, operating business in 2025 remained far short of expectations. Revenue decreased by 57.8% compared to last year, reaching €.425 million Euros. Overall, the Group sold 85,284 motorcycles (previous year: 147,496 units). The 42.2% decline in total sales is due to two production shutdowns that occurred up until the end of July, both of which lasted around three months.
On July 7th, 2025, the official Pierer Mobiliity forecast sounded completely different and contradicted the key financial figures issued a few weeks later. "The latest report exceeds our own expectations. The last six months have shown that the support of the motorcycle community for the KTM brand is uninterrupted," CEO Gottfried Neumeister wrote two month ago. "The over 100,000 motorcycles sold in a challenging first half of the year show that our bikes remain popular all over the world, and that we are back on the right track."
Incidentally, on December 20th, 2024, Neumeister submitted a business plan to their insolvency administrator, Peter Vogl, that mentioned 230,000 motorcycles sold in the year 2025. But it is now even questionable whether 100,000 motorcycles can be produced and sold in 2025.
Reports from Mattighofen indicate that up to 20,000 motocross models cannot be completed due to a lack of spare parts. Some 2025 MX models will not be available until November. In any case, production in Upper Austria will continue to operate in only one shift.
Bajaj celebrated the production of its one millionth KTM motorcycle at its plant in Pune in March. In its heyday, around 100,000 KTMs were produced in India.
Bajaj: "Before this disruption, you should know that our exports of KTM motorcycles worldwide were in the total order of about 15,000 to 20,000 a month. As I said, very profitable. In the January, February, March quarter of 2025, this fell to zero. It reduced progressively as they found themselves in trouble from the middle of last year. In the first quarter of this calendar year, I think we exported nothing. In quarter two, we are back to 14,000 or so. I would say the lower end of what is normal. And I am quite hopeful that, as we move forward, for two reasons, we should do even better. One because KTM is step by step, every week, getting stronger, which means with dealers, distributors, etc. things are normalizing. Secondly, perhaps you are aware that in terms of the new Duke, the new Adventure, the new Enduro, and Supermoto, we just started up with several new products, so that will bring us additional business, as well. So, the short story is that KTM exports may well hit a new high, of course, subject to Trump's tariffs."
And these punitive tariffs are currently still at 50% because India buys too much oil and gas from Russia. From April 2nd to August 27th, 2025, tariffs were still 26%. This means that trade between India and the USA is currently virtually at a standstill. In 2023, the Pierer Group still generated approximately 32% of its total revenue in the US, or nearly $1 billion Dollars. Several years ago, Mattighofen had discussed a plan to build an assembly facility and logistics center in the US state of Ohio to avoid the risk of high US tariffs.