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Husqvarna sold to KTM CEO Stefan Pierer

A couple of days ago the UK's Motorcycle News reported that BMW was in the final stages of selling Husqvarna to KTM, with a deal potentially confirmed as soon as this week. Following that came reports that Husqvarna Motorcycles wasn't sold to KTM but to a Pierer Industries, the company owned by KTM CEO Stefan Pierer. Turns out the advance report was true, as was the follow-up: BMW has just announced a "strategic realignment" of its Motorrad division, explaining that it sold Husqvarna to Pierer Industries in order to focus on the urban and e-mobility segments. Husqvarna's off-road machines, obviously, don't fit into those categories.
BMW bought the Italian-based bike maker with centuries-old Swedish roots in 2007 - the rest of the Husqvarna company remains based in Sweden - and has invested huge sums to integrate the smaller company into the larger parent. Six years later, just when dividends should begin to truly pay off, the brand is sold.
Before BMW made its announcement, one of the theories that forum members put forward for Pierer's interest in purchasing Husqvarna was that he wants his own business to run his own way. The parent company of KTM, Cross Industries, is 47.27-percent owned by India's Bajaj Automotive, with Pierer the majority shareholder, and is on a quest for global growth, taking the fight to BMW in Europe and launching new bikes and technology into the Indian market. Compared to BMW's and KTM's 2012 sales of around 100,000 bikes each in 2012, Husqvarna sold 10,751 bikes, which was a 15.7-percent increase over the previous year. Pierer would have a lot more freedom in the running of a company of that size.

2015 BMW i8 Prototype

M Meets Edison
The real telling moment for the new BMW i division will be seeing how the recently tested 2014 i3 sells in its various markets, since that is the car that changes how we perceive our expectations of the brand. But this 2015 BMW i8 green supercar has all the earmarks of a slam-dunk project, we just needed to drive it and make sure for ourselves.
BMW has a spectacular test facility in southern France, called Miramas, and that's where we just had our first brief go behind the wheel of the i8. There were three cars for us there and they were dressed up in exactly the same paisley camo that we've all seen in the spy photos published everywhere for the past year. The interiors, though swathed in masking to hide all the details, varied in their color.

BMW M4 vs. Lexus RC F in Head 2 Head sports coupe showdown

It's the showdown everyone's been looking forward to, the East versus West grudge match of the year. We're talking, of course, about the BMW M4 versus the Lexus RC F.
Although BMW uses a twin-turbo straight-six and the Lexus uses a free-breathing V8, the two are pretty closely matched on paper: a luxury coupe with over 400 horsepower channeled to the rear wheels.
The BMW has been doing these cars for longer, and the M4 boasts a higher power-to-weight ratio. But then the RC F has more power - and without forced induction to break up the rev range. So which is the better luxury muscle coupe? Watch the latest episode of Motor Trend Head 2 Head to find out.