And its pretty evident that people enjoy theory building and speculation. Theories will be built around the unknown until it is known... see exhibit A below.
Apologies to the Americans... exhibit A is a prehistoric monument in Britian. (injoke for the Aussies )
BYOB......bring your own beer/booze.......build your own Beta. or go visit Tomas e Mirko.....TM. fan the flames of Fantic, holler for HM.....etc etc etc or do like me just keep on riding the crap out of your Varese Husky and let the white collar guys play money games in the EU and India.
one more from the field of what we don't really know Pierer Industrie AG has been reported as both a subsidiary of KTM AG and a holding company which owns the majority of Cross AG. It can't be both, because Cross owns KTM AG. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, it is a subsidiary of KTM AG which lends credence to the purchase really being made by KTM. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=99131290 Not what a lot of folks wanted to see, but businessweek could be wrong so it really isn't actually news either... just another puzzle piece that doesn't quite make a picture yet.
Here is some insight on how the future Huskys will be made... http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2013/03/building-a-ktm-video/
One thing I found interesting in the first video is that they are already researching motors for bikes in 2017. I could never be an engineer for a motorcycle company, my spy pics would be all over the web lol
Case and point again - 1. ) 22% lower manufacturing cost is significant, BMW had it right there. They, for reasons of their own, choose a different path. 2.) The money BMW spent was more than a "FACE LIFT" - 50+M euro were spent between machining centers, design, & R&D, ect. (Look it up in BMW financials).(that's just "on the books" - money) 3.) Acerbis, Brembo are not the only motorcycle components from Italy. Build close to the source make sense. Again - more bikes are being built in Italy than Austria means more support suppliers. 4.) Actually there is very little vehicular support industry in Austria compared to Italy. I can send a "White Paper" on this one. 5.) KTM exports a significant portion of their bikes through Italy, Plus a big portion of the KTM 100,000 bikes are not from Austria, (India maybe?) Exporting out of ports in the Mediterranean (going east or West) is a lot cheaper regardless of volume. Maybe KTM should move there manufacturing to Italy! 6.) Manufacturing capacity is rooted in labor cost not number of production machines and factory floor space. Austrian labor cost have gone up in the past 5 years compared to level-to-lower cost in Italy. As an Engineer coming from a production background - maybe I'm just "Spewing-off" But, if I were in a position to make a decision on this ........... "Faith with Facts" Hard to Overpower
You continue to make lots of good points but reality isn't going to support your speculations. None of your speaking points explains the large losses incurred every month in Italy producing Husqvarna Motorcycles. Production losses above and beyond the bleeding the rest of the company is experiencing. All the well thought out paper in the world doesn't rectify real world problems and excess costs.
I can't argue with your expertise, but I think it will boil down to "Cultural" differences between Austrians and Italians.... this was the undoing of their German brothers at BMW and Husqvarna.
5.) KTM exports a significant portion of their bikes through Italy, Plus a big portion of the KTM 100,000 bikes are not from Austria, (India maybe?) I just took a look at the KTM site and it says, 81,000 units were assembled at the plant in Mattinghofen in 2012. That's about 70,000 more than Husky built in the same year. This leaves about 20 to 30,000 units for the Indian factory
