You'd think we'd be done. You'd think that after all the corporate side-speak and misdirection and straight-up telling everyone that "Everything is fine" when we can clearly see that it's not, KTM would've learned its lesson. It would've learned that in order to weather this storm of its own making, transparency is key. But you'd be wrong.
After figuring out how it would continue to operate, half-heartedly kicking out its CEO, getting a lifeline to resume production, and then supposedly getting back to work, KTM is once again playing the coy game in terms of what's actually going on at the Austrian motorcycle company. Yep, KTM is back on its bullshit as while it's stated that production is once again happening at Mattighofen, it won't tell anyone which bikes it's producing.
So I just have to ask, why the hell not? It's a pretty simple question and one customers should be privy to know. Why are we doing this again, KTM?
The production resumption news comes from Motorcycle News (MCN), which was told that production resumed late last month after the company secured several tens of millions of dollars in financial liquidity to do just that.
At the time, KTM didn't state how that money would be used outside that production would resume. It didn't state whether or not it would rehire those who lost their jobs due to the restructuring, it didn't state which bikes would take priority, and it didn't state if anything had changed in terms of when motorcycles were set to find themselves in dealerships worldwide. It also didn't say what would happen to all the existing inventory that's been piling up in those same dealerships for three years.
But cut to today, and while MCN was told production resumed, the company declined to say which motorcycles it was producing, and that feels like a weird thing to do after all these months of not producing a single bike. I mean, you've got the highly anticipated 1390s, the new 990 sportbike, and everyone's favorite middleweights, so what's getting priority?
We do know that KTM's 390s aren't affected by the production pause, nor the resumption of production, as they're not actually KTMs. We also know that KTM's Freeride E electric dirt bike has been delayed. How long, however, is anyone's guess as the timetable is unclear, according to a KTM spokesperson. But it's so odd for KTM to decline to say which bikes are being produced, how many are being produced (or even aimed to be produced), and what's going on at Mattighofen.
It just adds to the appearance that KTM is as dysfunctional as ever, which it can't afford to have when it's attempting to salvage its reputation with both customers and whoever is set to help them out of this mess. The whole thing screams of something, again, being hidden from the public's view. It's a bad look, and I fear KTM isn't quite as out of the woods as it would love for you to believe.
