KTM Q1 2026 results paint a very promising picture
KTM’s recovery is beginning to look very real, with bike sales more than doubling in Q1 2026 as new models, fresh investment and brutal cost-cutting start paying off.
KTM has published its Q1 2026 financial results, and as we all hoped, the brand is up and running again, and things are looking much rosier.
But the good news isn’t just the fact that KTM is building and selling bikes once again; behind the sheen of the showroom floor, other aspects of the business are beginning to bear fruit. Before that, though, we’ll focus on what really matters: the bikes.
Since shedding its e-bicycle and X-Bow businesses, and ditching the deals that never really made sense (we are talking about CFMoto and MV Agusta), Bajaj Mobility AG claims that group revenue is just over 331 million euros, an uptick of 70.2 per cent on Q1 2025. The headline figure, though, is bikes sold, which ended Q1 on 40,332 units. That’s a whopping 125.1 per cent increase. And while that may sound like Trump Maths, you have to remember that at this time last year, KTM was basically in its own enforced state of administration – and the Bajaj takeover wasn’t even a blip on the radar yet.
So, if you build (and importantly sell) bikes, everything is profitable again? Well, not quite. Some regions are still lagging behind Q1 2025 numbers in terms of retail sales, with Europe still marginally down, but only to the tune of around 1,000 units. What is really driving KTM’s profitability surge is the difficult side of running a business, things like headcount – or as boardroom types like to refer to it, ‘reducing complexity and costs’.
Aside from reducing the backlog of unsold bikes, which is widely believed to be part of KTM’s problems in the years running up to 2025, there has also been a string of successful new model launches in 2025 and 2026. If you count the multiple variants in the 125 and 390 bikes, eight new or updated models have arrived from KTM, including the track-ready 990 RC R Track, the road-focused 890 SMT and the Dakar-ready 890 ADV Rally.
But KTM isn’t stopping there, as the 1390 Super Duke RR and Super Duke RR Track are both on the horizon, while the off-road-focused 2027 Freeride E and SX range are also on the cusp of being unveiled. Add to that the 550 million Euro refinancing, which was confirmed earlier this year, and you’d have to agree that whatever it is that Bajaj is doing with its European motorcycle business, it seems to be working.
That said, there’s still a long road ahead before anyone in Mattighofen can start popping corks. KTM may be back building bikes, but the scars of the last 18 months won’t disappear overnight. Dealers in some markets are still sitting on ageing stock, confidence among parts suppliers will take time to rebuild, and there’s also the small matter of convincing buyers that KTM is stable enough to support the bikes it sells long-term.
Even so, compared to the chaos of early 2025, the turnaround is difficult to ignore. Production lines are moving again, new models are landing at a steady pace, and for the first time in a while, KTM’s headlines are being driven by motorcycles rather than financial firefighting. For a company that looked perilously close to the brink not all that long ago, that probably counts as a win.
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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!
