Ducati’s New V2 Fleet of Bikes Revealed in NHTSA Filing
It looks like the Monster and DesertX will be gaining the new lighter V2 engine, as NHTSA filings are revealed
Ducati’s 890cc V2 engine looks set to land on a bunch of new bikes for the 2026 model year, as National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) documents list all the new models.
The news was broken by Motorcycle.com’s Dennis Chung, who managed to catch a glimpse of the documents before they were seemingly removed from the database - they apparently had the word “CONFIDENTIAL” emblazoned on them in red lettering!
What it reveals is the ongoing move by Ducati to shift a number of models away from the 937cc Ducati Testastretta 11° twin-cylinder engine and towards the brand's super-light and compact 890cc V2. It’s this engine that powers the latest generation Panigale and Streetfighter V2 models, as well as the new Multistrada V2, and if the documents are correct (and we’d have no reason to doubt them), it’ll be a feature on a lot more bikes next year.
First up on the list are Ducati’s Monster models, as the Monster and Monster + look set to gain the new engine. There are two groups of Monster models listed on the filing, one group (which includes the Monster, Monster+, Monster SP, and the Monster 30° Anniversario) listed under ‘M’, and a second group (which includes the Monster and Monster+) listed under ‘U’. The first group of bikes is the existing Monsters, powered by the Testastretta unit, while the second is thought to be the new V2 models. This theory is backed up by the other bikes listed under the VIN code ‘U’, which includes the Panigale V2 and V2 S, the Streetfighter V2 and V2 S and the Multistrada V2 and V2 S - all of those bikes also use the latest generation V2 engine.
The second nugget of news found by Mr Chung is that the DesertX also seems to be ditching the torquey Testastretta motor in favour of the lighter, more compact and cleaner V2 power. It’s not directly listed on the same filing as the bikes mentioned above, but there is evidence of it nonetheless, and it also points to the model gaining a new model-specific gearbox. The VIN decoder denotes the V2 engine found in the Panigale, Streetfighter and Multistrada V2 models under the number ‘8’, although there is another V2 shown which is specifically listed with a note next to it which reads “differs from 8 [standard V2 engine] for gearbox dedicated for Desert X.”
Exactly what that means remains to be seen. It could simply be a revised box of cogs for the more rugged and off-road biased travel enduro, although with the current swing of motorcycle manufacturers exploring alternative transmissions, see Yamaha's Y-AMT and Honda E-Clutch, it could also mean that the DesertX is set to gain some form of automated gearbox.
For any confirmation of this, we’ll have to wait and see, although it’s a safe bet that at least some of these new models will form a big part of Ducati’s World Premiere reveals, set to happen around the time of EICMA.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
