Those who look back fondly on the Cagiva brand will be happy to hear that it will be officially revived as a motorcycle brand, with models set to debut later this year, for the 2019 model year.
Before you envision a modern take on the Cagiva Elefant however, this news comes with the caveat that Cagiva will serve as MV Agusta Motor’s foray into the electric two-wheeled space.
We are cautious to label this endeavor however, as the new Cagiva will operate in a segment of vehicle that hasn’t really been created yet – a type of electric two-wheeler that is somewhere between an e-bike and a full-blown electric motorcycle, like what Alta and Zero are producing.
The move was told to us by MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni, and is similar to one that was announced by KTM CEO Stefan Pierer late last year, where the Austrian brand will develop something that sits between its KTM-branded e-bikes and its newly released Freeride-E models.
“I believe in electric. There is a great potential, and we are making a project there – under another brand – which is Cagiva,” Giovanni Castiglioni explained to us.
For Cagiva, this news leads to an eventual lineup that will include a new Elefant, but will first start with sport-focused off-road bikes with electric powertrains. We imagine something at or below the 125cc four-stroke class, but more potent than a downhill mountain bike.
“We are investing in lightweight fun vehicles, bikes. Let’s say in-between…it’s a family. It’s a family that goes between a bicycle to a Zero-type bike, but different,” Castiglioni clarified.
“If you want to go 300 mph, buy a combustion engine. But I think there can be a lot of potential market for electric, and we want to be there, this is why we invest in it now. We’ll see in the next five years how the market will change. I think there is a great opportunity for that,” Castiglioni added.
Looking at the larger picture, there have already been rumors that Cagiva could be revived as the off-road compliment to MV Agusta’s purely on-road offering.
Coming at that equation, via an electric business plan is interesting though, and if the end-goal several years down the line is to remake the iconic Elefant adventure-tourer, that could mean several different things for the Italian band…all of which are very interesting.
For the larger MV Agusta Motor company, having both the MV Agusta and Cagiva brands will help lure dealers into signing up with the Italian firm, using the ability of servicing two distinct markets, and with a much larger range of price points.
We should see the first new Cagiva’s by the end of this year, as 2019 models. What they will look like, and how they will work, that remains to be seen however.
Source: MV Agusta
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