The situation of the former flagship company KTM may be getting worse. After overproduction and a subsequent slump in sales, around 130,000 motorcycles are now sitting unsold in warehouses. The new “Euro 5+” standard, which will come into force on January 1, 2025, could make the situation even worse. Vehicles that are only homologated according to the previous “Euro 5” standard may no longer be newly registered from this point onwards. This threatens to cause a significant loss in the value of the inventory, the government is sleeping, warns MFG state party chairman Joachim Aigner of another low blow for KTM.
“We already have extremely strict emissions and safety regulations in Austria and Europe, but the EU is still going one better without taking the economic consequences into account,” criticizes Joachim Aigner, state party chairman of the MFG. He sees the EU’s measures as anti-business and calls for a “radical departure from the EU’s Green Deal”.
New requirements due to the Euro 5+ standard
The Euro 5+ standard brings with it stricter rules for emissions monitoring and vehicle diagnostics. From 2025, the OBD II onboard diagnostic system will be mandatory and must continuously monitor all emissions-related components. In addition, the noise and particle limits will be reduced again. Although motorcycles that have already been registered are not affected by these changes, this represents a major challenge for unsold new vehicles.
“Once again, you don’t hear anything about this from the not-yet-government, instead you’re dealing with ongoing negotiations in which the bottom line is that Nehammer would like to remain chancellor and the completely incompetent Andreas Babler would like to be his deputy. “
MFG state party chairman Joachim Aigner
Transitional regulations allow exceptions for ‘expiring series’, such as those currently affecting KTM. However, these only apply until the end of 2026 and are limited to limited quantities – this is not enough for the 130,000 motorcycles in the KTM warehouses. For comparison: around 36,000 motorcycles are newly registered in Austria every year. KTM’s current inventory corresponds to domestic needs for almost four (!) years.
Imminent loss of value of over 290 million euros
A possible solution would be – in short – the so-called “day registration”: During this process, the vehicle is briefly registered and then immediately deregistered and is then considered “used”. Problem: A daily registration not only costs around 150 euros per transaction, the value of the motorcycle in question also drops rapidly – for a new car, for example, a loss in new price of 25 percent is realistic. Given the enormous number of motorcycles (130,000 units) that are in KTM’s warehouses, the calculated loss in value with an average purchase price of 9,000 euros amounts to a total of over 290 million euros – plus almost 20 million euros in fees for daily registrations.
Criticism of EU regulations and outlook
Joachim Aigner accuses the EU of ignoring the economic burden caused by its measures. “Our vehicles are already technically leading in terms of safety and emissions standards, and yet the requirements are becoming ever more stringent,” says Aigner. In his opinion, the EU is driving industry to ruin with its climate policy.
Due to the new Euro 5+ standard, KTM is forced to squander its inventory, which further increases the damage caused. “Once again, you don’t hear anything about this from the not-yet-government; instead, you’re dealing with ongoing negotiations in which the bottom line is that Nehammer would like to remain chancellor and the completely incompetent Andreas Babler would like to be his deputy.” said Joachim Aigner in conclusion.
Motorcycle manufacturers and developers are already facing the next challenge with the introduction of the Euro 6 standard in 2028. This will entail further requirements such as an ABS requirement for light motorcycles and stricter noise limits, which are likely to further increase production costs and thus also sales prices.