There are spreading rumors concerning the intention of Bajaj Auto to acquire a controlling stake of 55 to 56%  of Ktm this year. Bajaj bought 14.5% of Ktm back in 2007, while nowadays  that percentage has gradually   risen to 47%. 

When Bajaj achieves this controlling stake, some premium Ktm models may also be produced at the Indian plant in Chakan. For the time being only the smaller Dukes, 125/200/390 are   manufactured there  and certainly  they will be joined by the oncoming RC 125/200/390 faired-bikes.  
Ktm and Bajaj plan to launch Husqvarna in India after buying the Italian firm from Bmw, earlier this year. Will they move the production lines in India? Time will tell…




2013/4/18.   
The Ktm CEO Stefan Pierer in a recent interview to Cycle News announced that a new range of fully faired sporty versions of the Duke 125/200/390 are following. They will be based on the smaller Dukes and they will come with clip-ons. 
The RC 125/200/390 (RC will be the name of the series) will be launched at the EICMA show next November and will look similar to the Ktm Moto3 Grand Prix racer, which gives a good marketing linkage to that. Despite that they will derive from the Duke, the RCs will look very differently, thanks to the magic hands of Gerald Kiska. 
First to come the RC 390 in the beginning of 2014 and the RC 125 and 200 will follow in April next year. The RC 125 and RC 200 will be used for one-make race series around the world, especially on developing markets. 

Another range of dual purpose Dukes placed between supermotos and enduros will be presented next from the initial Duke 125/200/390 range. All these bikes will be manufactured at the Bajaj factory in Chakan. Additionally a new engine capacity between 250 and 390 c.c. will be introduced on these ranges, filling the existing gap.
 




2012/12/5.      Stefan Pierer, Ktm˘s CEO, during an interview told   the Indian media  CNBC-TV18, that  there will be two new variants of the  Ktm Duke 390. The first will be a full faired version and a variant with a touring potential. This confirms the rumours  saying that Ktm is due to present a moto3 version of the Duke and an enduro one.  

     “We expect additional displacements, the 390cc  coming is a full faired version and the so called tour purpose version,” says Pierer. “By the end, we have a full model range where we can settle in all these and especially the Asian markets.” 

RC8
     Since there is a lot of speculation at the Internet about these two bikes, lets add one more idea. The full faired  road version should get a smoother RC8  styling since it still will be an everyday bike which should remain cheap to buy. It should be reminded that the price for the Duke 390 in Italy was announced recently at ¤5000. Resolving (?) this issue, the only gap at the 390 range after a naked bike and a supersport  styled one, will be an enduro or  adventure which could also be a  smaller and more user friendly version of the single cylinder 690 Adventure! 

690 Enduro with panniers
     It should be reminded that the Ktm Duke range of the 125-200 and 390 c.c. is sharing basically the same platform, altering the engine capacity or even the whole engine. At the biggest 375 c.c. version the engine delivers 44 bhp and the bike weighs just 150 kg. The two new siblings  should be launched within a year. 
2012/12/24

• 1190 Adventure base: ¤ 13.990 
• 1190 Adventure: ¤ 14.870 
• 1190 Adventure R: ¤ 14.970 
• 125 Duke ABS ¤ 4.195 
• 200 Duke ABS ¤ 4.495 
• 390 Duke ABS ¤ 4.995 
• 690 Duke ¤ 7.870 
• 690 Duke R ¤ 9.970

      It is interesting to see that in Italy the new 390 Duke ABS costs ¤ 4.995, which is about the price of a Honda SH300i ABS, between the price of a Yamaha X-MAX and X-MAX ABS, or the new base model Kawasaki ninja 300. Good!