KTM is insolvent - and is giving away thousands of Husqvarna e-bikes to employees

KTM is insolvent. On Friday (29 November 2024), the Austrian motorbike manufacturer is expected to file for restructuring proceedings with self-administration, as the parent company Pierer Mobility announced on Tuesday. The reason for this is a liquidity bottleneck: KTM apparently needs financing in the high three-digit million range. The long-established Austrian company therefore does not expect to be able to secure interim financing in the coming days. The planned reorganisation procedure affects both the parent company KTM AG and the subsidiaries KTM Components and KTM R&D. According to the company, all other subsidiaries are unaffected. Spiegel, among others, reported on the situation at the beginning of the week.

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No connection to KTM Fahrrad GmbH

In a separate press release, the KTM Fahrrad GmbHthat it has been operating as an independent bicycle manufacturer since 1992. There are no economic or corporate links to KTM AG and Pierer Mobility AG. The company is financially stable and has nothing to do with the latest developments at KTM AG. The press release dated 26/11/2024 states verbatim:

"1) Since 1992, KTM AG (part of Pierer Mobility AG) and KTM Fahrrad GmbH have been two completely independent and autonomous companies
a) There are therefore no economic or corporate links with Pierer Mobility AG or KTM AG.
b) This means that the negative news about KTM AG (Pierer Mobility AG) in recent days has nothing to do with KTM bicycles.
2) Since 1992, every bicycle and e-bike of the KTM brand has come exclusively from KTM Fahrrad GmbH, and not from KTM AG (or Pierer Mobility AG).
3) KTM Fahrrad GmbH has been the sole property of Mrs Carol Urkauf-Chen since 1992."

Source: https://www.ktm-bikes.at/fileadmin/user_upload/2025/KTM_Information_Pierer__26-11-2024.pdf

The zur Pierer Mobility AG's bicycle brands Husqvarna and GasGas do not appear to be affected by the insolvency of motorbike manufacturer KTM.

KTM AG is still giving away e-bikes - here's why

Why is the news nevertheless interesting and explosive for the bike industry? The reason: Pierer Mobility AG is the parent company of KTM Motorrad, but Husqvarna Bikes and GasGas are also part of it. The Salzburger Nachrichten reports that between 5,000 and 7,000 Husqvarna e-bikes were given away to the workforce in order to save on storage costs.

This development is viewed critically by the industry in the region, as even though Pierer stipulates that the bikes are for personal use only, numerous bikes have recently appeared on various market platforms and been offered for sale. There were fears of market distortion resulting from the cheap sale and use of the almost new bikes.