Last March, Pierer Mobility became the majority shareholder of MV Agusta, acquiring 50.1% of the Italian firm’s shares. In November 2022, the Austrian group managed to acquire 25.1% of the transalpine firm and despite the refusal of Timur Sardarov, who at that time was the majority owner of MV Agusta with 74.9% of the shares, the Varese brand has come under the control of the orange company.
Now our colleagues at Motociclismo Italia have been able to speak at length with the current President and CEO of MV Agusta, Hubert Trunkenpolz. He has openly exposed the difficulties faced by the Italian firm, and what are the short and medium term solutions for it to be profitable, as well as competitive. All this without losing the aura of exclusivity with which it has always been associated.
MV Agusta has to double its volume next year and reach 10,000 units
Without a doubt, the main pillar on which MV Agusta must rely in the coming years is to increase the number of units sold per season. Currently, the brand sells around 5,000 units per season, a matter on which Trunkenpolz has been clear:
“First of all, you have to consider that MV Agusta is very special in the market. MV will never be a brand of big numbers. But what is being built now is certainly very little. So We have to double the volume next year and reach 10,000 units.even if we have a production capacity of 13,000 to 14,000 units. It will take time to reach these last figures, but I do not think that the MV brand, which is very premium, but rather luxury, can sell more than this amount.”
Trunkenpolz’s influence within the Austrian group is truly remarkable. We only have to point out one fact: the T that prefaces his surname is the same as that which makes up the name of KTM. Together with Stefan Pierer, he can be considered the company’s top dog, so his decisions regarding MV Agusta in the coming months and years will be of vital importance.
Again, referring to annual sales figures, Trunkenpolz clarifies these figures and MV Agusta’s market capacity: “MV Agusta is not a brand that requires large production volumes, we do not plan to have 50 or 100,000 MVs, the market is not big enough for these figures. I repeat: our target now is 10,000 motorcycles per year.”
He is aware that being above these figures is almost a utopia, since as he himself argues: “To have even 15,000 pieces, you have to do the math again, but how many bikes can you sell, costing between 30,000 and 50,000 euros? Are people willing to pay this money? We have to face reality and then we have to create a market that wants to own an MV Agusta.”
On the other hand, he is aware that large sums of money must be invested to update the structure of MV Agusta, especially in the R&D departments. To do this, they will take advantage of the resources provided by KTM and on this subject he acknowledges that: “There is already good collaboration between the R&D department of MV Agusta in Italy and that of KTM in Austria: the first project on which both teams are working closely is the 950cc three-cylinder engine.”
However, when asked about the possible correlation of the Italian brand with CFMoto due to the latter’s links with KTM, in relation to the three-cylinder engine that the Asian brand presented at EICMA 2023, Trunkenpolz states that: “There is nothing that unites them. It is an exclusively Chinese project. It has nothing to do with a three-cylinder MV. For Italian bikes we are talking about extreme performance, and our engine, in its displacement, is the “strongest” three-cylinder on the market.”
Some really interesting aspects of this interview are related to the opinion of KTM’s top management (Stefan Pierer) regarding the new MV Agusta models, especially the Enduro Veloce. Here the CEO of the Italian brand leaves no room for doubt: “The Superveloce, the Brutale, the Dragster and limited edition bikes like the Brutale 1000 Assen are certainly 100% MV Agusta. The Enduro Veloce and the LXP dedicated to Edi Orioli are in the middle (probably referring to something like the Porsche and Lamborghini SUVs).”
One of the issues on the table regarding the new stage of MV Agusta is whether we will be able to see one of the Varese bikes on the MotoGP grid again. On this subject, Trunkenpolz states that: “Of course, we have to get back to racing. So yes. New regulations for MotoGP will be coming in 2027. There will be new regulations for the engines, it could be the right year to see an MV Agusta back in this championship.”
He also said that this possibility would involve sharing the technology currently being developed by the KTM and GASGAS MotoGP teams: “We will not develop an engine just for KTM or just for MV Agusta. Our goal is to have the best engine for MotoGP and this engine will surely be shared between the two brands. The V4 engine is the best concept for this category… There is no reason to spend 50 million euros, with the risk of not even finishing in the top ten. So I am 100% sure that the engine will be the same for KTM and MV, but the rest of the bike will be different.”
Finally, our colleagues at Motociclismos openly ask Trunkenpolz about possible strategic alliances with Bajaj and CFMoto in their countries of origin, to which he responds: “The marketing and dealer development departments, of course, remain here in Varese, but in collaboration with colleagues from our group. And taking advantage of the opportunities that this exchange can bring. Personally, I don’t see any MV Agusta assembled in China or India, frankly, I don’t think about it.”
The latter is curious considering the leaks about the next SRK 921 SV, the Superveloce “made in China”, which is already being prepared by QJMotor, a copy of the Italian sports bike. We can deduce that the Chinese bike will not need to bear the MV Agusta logos, although in general terms we are talking about almost the same bike, technically and conceptually speaking.
