AUSTRIAN brand KTM is no stranger to punching its way into new two-wheeled territories. Be it buying out other brands or forging partnerships with big players in other parts of the world. If it extends the portfolio, KTM is all over it!
And it seems that the famous maker of on and off-road bikes is looking to kick the doors in on another potentially lucrative market - scooters! The rumours about KTM building a scooter have been around for a while now, although this looks like the first tangible proof that the project is indeed going ahead. The image you can see in the social media post below comes from the German mag’ Motorrad.de. In it, you can clearly see a scooter, and the person riding it is, as is often the way in KTM spyshots, decked out head-to-toe in KTM branded kit. It’s almost like the test riders know the snapper is going to be there…
Now, that could be pure coincidence, and the test rider may just be a fan of the orange brand’s clobber. But there are some other clues that this is more likely to be KTM’s first (that we can recall) twist-and-go offering.
The first clue comes from the swingarm, which seems to be a machined item, so not like anything else in the current KTM range, although the style and design of the swing arm is very evocative of the items found on bikes like the Duke and RC series machines made by KTM. Should this bike actually make it to production, for speed and economic convenience, we’d expect this part in the future to be cast, and not machined. The next clue comes from the adjuster block located on the rear axle. Not only does this point to this electric scoot’ potentially utilising chain drive and not a belt or direct drive, but it does also look like a hand-me-down item from one of the other lightweight KTM models.
The original design sketches for the bike were a little more outlandish!
The final piece of the puzzle comes from the knowledge that we already know KTM is looking to get in on the scooter and urban mobility market. The talk of the Austrian brand launching an electric lightweight bike just like this has been around for some time now, and we even reported on it back in 2020. Given KTM’s penchant for making the kind of bikes that sell in huge numbers, in Europe and further afield, we wouldn’t bet against a new twist-and-go arriving in a distinctive shade of orange in the not-too-distant future.
