Ah, MV Agusta. The most Italian of all Italian motorcycle brands. High on style, low on financial stability. But, the new Men In Charge want us to know they’re changed all that, the company is turned around, and new models are just around the corner.
In this interview on Adnkronos, MV’s big boss Timur Sardarov gives us the same basic deets we’ve known for a few months now. MV Agusta is raising money, it’s planning new motorcycles (based on two new engines), it’s also planning other powered mobility products, and it’s gearing up for a big increase in business.
One of those engines is supposed to be a value-oriented parallel twin, although we’d expect it to be like KTM’s 890 platform—still priced above similar Japanese offerings. Don’t look for budget MV Agusta releases anytime soon.
We’ve heard it all before, but it seems to be taking a while for these new developments to take place. Of course, there’s the whole coronavirus pandemic issue, which no doubt set the clock back on much of the company’s planning. Supposedly, the designers have spent the last few months working on re-engineering and re-styling their bikes, and indeed, we have seen a few releases lately—but at this point, it’s all been warmed-over product, the kind of stuff that’s high-reward, low-risk.
Long-term, though, the plans sound ambitious. But then, they always do—one could never accuse the Italian motorcycle industry of lacking flair.
One interesting rumour that’s circulated is that if/when MV Agusta revives the Cagiva brand (which it’s supposedly evaluating), it will be an electric mobility company. There is a huge future in the e-bike sector, maybe even more than electric motorcycling, and while no moto manufacturer has really nailed the formula yet, it’s at least good to see forward thinking.
