BMW is set to use Husqvarna to spearhead an assault on 'emerging' bike markets in Asia and India according to Financial Times Deutschland.
Quoting BMW Motorrad boss Hendrik von Kuenheim, the newspaper reveals that the firm is eyeing potential partnerships with existing brands in emerging markets, presumably to give access to local production facilities, cheaper labor and a reduction or elimination of the hefty duties that push prices of imported bikes out of reach.
By using the Husqvarna brand rather than the BMW name on new products destined for those markets – likely to be relatively cheap, small-capacity bikes – the firm would avoid the need to make low-priced BMW-badged bikes that would go against the firm's existing image. Husqvarna, with a more recent history of small-capacity bikes and no existing presence in the Asian market, would be a more suitable brand to use.
A link up with a manufacturer from India or Asia would give Husqvarna parity to its Austrian rival, KTM, which is part-owned by Bajaj. The Indian firm's newly-launched Pulsar 200, for instance, uses the same engine as KTM's Duke 200, and KTMs for the Indian market are made in Bajaj plants.
The western-market implications of the mooted venture in the East will depend enormously on how BMW/Husqvarna goes ahead with the project, but access to cheaper production could well encourage the firm to create more in the way of entry-level machines, potentially rivaling the likes of KTM's Duke 125 and Honda's Thai-made CBR250R.
