Honestly, after the company was supposedly saved a few weeks ago, I thought the fallout of the KTM insolvency chaos would be over. Or, at the very least, be relegated to seemingly minor flare-ups of executives getting axed or a newswire hitting stating Hamilton actually is saving the MotoGP team. I mean, alls good in the hood now, right?
Wrong. After all, this is KTM we're talking about.
So the FAFO decisions it made in prior years, the same decisions that led to it nearly being relegated to the graveyard of famous marquees, continue impacting the company today as it attempts to right the ship. The latest casualty seemingly being the much-ballyhooed new generation Freeride E electric dirt bike it was set to launch to the public this year, as the company has removed all mention of it from its site. As well as its sites in the UK, Germany, and other locales.
And what's really weird about this whole thing is that the brand just announced that enduro superstar Taddy Blazusiak—who had a stint with Stark Future—was returning to the brand to...become a consultant for the brand's electric motorcycle development.
Cool, cool, cool, totally cool, everything's fine, guys...
Update: According to a KTM representative, the Freeride E is not cancelled but delayed. However, no specific date range for how long that delay was given. The story continues as first published.
RideApart was first alerted that the Freeride had been removed from the U.S. website from a social media post on Reddit. The post, titled "No Freeride E for 2025", went on to state that the user had looked at KTM's main US portal and no Freeride was mentioned, though it had been only a few short months ago. We then checked ourselves, as well as the sites for KTM Germany, KTM UK, and KTM Canada, with the only electric offerings from the company being those for children.
But that wasn't supposed to be the case.
No Freeride E for 2025?
byu/drunkbutnotdumb inKTM
According to a KTM press release dated October 17th, 2024—I archived the release here for posterity—the company states, "The 2025 KTM FREERIDE E, ridden by hardenduro star Manuel Lettenbichler, marks a significant milestone for KTM, a full decade after they introduced the electric KTM FREERIDE E concept. Lettenbichler’s endorsement of the bike showcases its capability in challenging off-road environments, validating its performance at the highest level of the sport." But here's the rub.
That same press release states, "The new 2025 KTM FREERIDE E will be rolling off the Austrian production line in December and will be available at authorized KTM dealers in January 2025." It's now nearly April as I write this and the brand has scrubbed all mention of the motorcycle, apart from the news releases.
Likewise, when RideApart went to KTM's image library to find a picture of the Freeride for this story, the images had been scrubbed. On a message stating, "Asset Not Found: Sorry, the item you requested could not be found. It is possible that it has been deleted recently."
Now, obviously, KTM has been through the wringer lately. And up until very recently, production was shut down in Austria. But the full removal of the motorcycle's existence is an odd one, especially since the brand has already moved the dates for its 1390 and 990 motorcycles to later this year—the 390s weren't affected by the production shutdown as they're not built by KTM. It very well could be that the Freeride has just been postponed until later this year or even next year. But why not just say that?
RideApart reached out to KTM for a request for comment on the situation and we'll update this post once or if we hear back. But as of right now, there's no new Freeride E coming.
