ATK Motorcycles has partnered with S&T Motors, the South Korean maker of Hyosung vehicles. The partnership eventually will produce a small-displacement ATK streetbike to be sold through Harley-Davidson dealers, ATK announced earlier this week at EICMA.

“The goal of the partnership is to strengthen the competitive position of both companies,” an ATK news release stated. “Each company will continue to be run separately, but will work together on several specific cooperative projects involving new product development, distribution, manufacturing and purchasing.”

The press release quoted Taekwon Kim, CEO of S&T Motors, as saying, “I believe this partnership will provide substantial benefits to S&T and ATK and both companies’ dealers, employees, suppliers and shareholders for years to come. We have long admired ATK and are excited about working together to strengthen both companies. S&T can benefit from ATK’s substantial experience in the American motorcycle market and ATK’s presence inside the Harley dealer network.”

ATK CEO Frank White stated, “S&T and ATK complement each other well, and we are very excited about our new relationship. By joining forces, we believe we can strengthen our distribution network, reduce our production costs, spread development costs and substantially accelerate our entry into the streetbike business. We also look forward to sharing some of our off-road technology with S&T. The ATK and S&T management teams should work well together.

“There will be some differentiation between S&T branded products and the ATK-branded products,” White continued. “S&T will send parts from Korea, and we will integrate those with our own American and European parts. These American-Utah-assembled motorcycles will be targeted to be sold through a select group of Harley-Davidson dealers who are looking for a quality smaller-displacement motorcycle to be sold under the U.S. ATK brand name.

“The management at Harley-Davidson knows what we are doing with some of their dealers; however, they do not endorse our activities in any way,” White added.

Posted by Arlo Redwine