The 790 Duke and 790 Adventure will be developed in Hangzhou, China, as part of a new collaboration between KTM and CF Moto. It’s got a new warehouse of almost 25.000 square feet. The construction of the plant began in March 2018 and is expected to be completed by June 2020. After that, KTM will transfer some of its motorcycle manufacture to that plant.
The plant has a manufacturing capacity of 50,000 motorcycles annually. This could be increased to 100,000 annually if demand makes it appropriate. The new manufacturing plant will also have a section for research and development.
The 790 Duke and 790 Adventure will certainly be developed there. Apparently, the new 890 Duke and CF Moto’s own variants will also come from this plant. This will allow KTM’s facility in Austria to concentrate on the flagship models of their motorcycle business. Such models include the 1290 Super Adventure, 1290 Super Duke GT and 1290 Super Duke R models.
This is surely an interesting, yet not too surprising move from KTM. It definitely makes sense, as manufacturing costs are very low in China, with no high damage to quality. It will be important to see whether this affects the quality at all or whether it changes the customer’s view of the brand.
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Source: Web Bike World
