Cagiva Is Back in the Game as MV Agusta’s Electric Pet Project
Cagiva Motorcycles has an impressive history of street bikes, off-roaders, and racing success in Dakar, Motocross, and Grand Prix racing. But it stopped production five years ago to focus on the MV Agusta brand and ever since then, they have pretty much non-existent.
The wait is over, however. The Italian marque will be reborn as an electric bike brand under its parent company MV Agusta. Its models are set to debut later this year, for the 2019 line-up.
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 Motors and Zero are producing.
MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni said, “I believe in electric. There is a great potential, and we are making a project there – under another brand – which is Cagiva.”
It seems like Cagiva will be producing small, electric off-roaders, a strategic move what with the growing adventure bike market.
““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.”
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.