MV Agusta has global ambitions, and part of that includes expanding into Asia. While it already has showrooms in several Asian countries, including the Philippines, its high-end models are still out of reach of many Asian riders’ budgets.
MV Agusta’s CEO, Timur Sardarov, recently talked with BikeSocial UK about the company’s plans of building a new adventure bike range that will be developed and produced in China.
“We are working on a new 500cc platform with quite an interesting philosophy and we are also working on our new adventure range that will be announced in next 3-4 months,” said Sardarov, during the exclusive interview.
"Over the next three years we will grow in all the segments but with our production outsourced, especially for the 500cc platform, which we are outsourcing to China, we will achieve 20,000-22,000 bikes in the next three years," he added.
Two Chinese partners
If you recall, MV Agusta has already struck partnerships with two key Chinese motorcycle manufacturers: Benelli’s parent company, Quianjiang Motor Company (QJ Motor), which was inked just last September; and Chinese motorcycle manufacturing giant, Loncin, which now has the Voge brand born out of a technical partnership with MV Agusta back in July last year.
So who will be building the new adventure bike? It could be Benelli, which has already developed its own adventure model, the TRK500. If the Italian brand were to share a platform with motorcycles from Benelli, it could significantly save on research and development costs and speed up the future model’s production. Perhaps other 500cc models (naked, sport) could be built by Loncin, whose naked bike under the Voge brand is just as stylish and reasonably priced.
Electric future of MV Agusta
Besides diversifying its sub-1-liter bike offerings, the MV Agusta boss also sees electrification as the future. This was hinted at when he was asked about an F4 replacement in the works.
“We currently have to work more towards electric propulsion rather than saving the combustion engine,” Sardov replied.
He added that, within the next 2-3 years, light personal mobility urban commuters, as well as high-performance bicycles will be part of the brand’s stable of products.
This means that they will also be developing kick scooters, mopeds or even bicycles. Don’t worry, these will bear the Cagiva name which MV Agusta also owns, as revealed by the CEO in another article.
More accessible models
“MV Agusta is now going into the wider range of mobility. The journey will start in the lighter mobility segment and move to urban commuters that will be powered by electric propulsion. We will produce high-performance bicycles that are also electrified,” says Sardarov.
Whatever it is, the future looks bright for MV Agusta, according to Sardarov.
“From next year we will produce 10,000 bikes (from 5,500 today), which will be a record for MV Agusta. From there we will start to be strong and the market will feel that effect," he concluded.
