Enduros under the emissions spotlight: scandal or rulebook problem?

Why the current debate about derestricted sport enduros says more about unrealistic type-approval logic than about a major motorcycle problem.

What this is about

ZDF frontal, Der Spiegel, ORF, Der Standard, Le Monde and other media are currently reporting on sport enduros from KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas that are allegedly being derestricted unlawfully. The research was coordinated by Climate Whistleblowers.

The core of the reports: certain enduro models are type-approved in a restricted state and registered for road use, but are often derestricted later for competition and off-road use. KTM rejects this account and stresses that dealers sell the vehicles to end customers exclusively in the homologated, road-legal state. Derestriction only happens afterwards, at the express request of the customer and with the notice that the road registration then expires.

For enduro riders, the topic is less surprising than it appears in general news coverage. For years, modern sport enduros have operated in a tension: on paper, they have to be registered like ordinary road motorcycles. In practice, however, they are highly specialised sports machines for off-road riding, training, competition and liaison stages.

The problem arises between paper and practice

Nobody buys a 300 sport enduro because it rides particularly convincingly in its restricted state. It is bought because it is light, direct, powerful and capable off-road. But these very qualities conflict with the noise and emissions requirements for regular road use.

That is why the familiar split arises: a homologated state for registration, an open state for sport and off-road use. Legally, this separation is clear. In practice, it is often much blurrier in the enduro world, because many vehicles need a registration even though their actual purpose is not normal road traffic.

Why the framing is dangerous for the enduro scene

The real risk lies not only in the legal review, but in the public image. The average ZDF viewer or newspaper reader can hardly place this niche. He hears “motorcycle”, “emissions scandal”, “Dieselgate on two wheels”, “illegal machine” and “old diesel locomotive”. That this concerns a very small group of competition enduros is quickly lost. Among other things, ZDF reports on measurements on a derestricted KTM in which carbon monoxide levels were compared with those of an old diesel locomotive.

For someone outside the scene, it is hard to tell whether the subject is a KTM EXC, an adventure bike, a 125, a naked bike or motorcycles in general. This is exactly what creates the risk of generalisation: a special case in enduro sport quickly becomes, in people’s perception, “motorcyclists cheat on noise and emissions”.

There is another framing point as well: ZDF also describes such enduros as particularly popular with young riders, often fitted with road tyres, with high power, low weight and high agility. This shifts the narrative away from a technical registration question towards a picture of young riders on light, fast machines that are hard to control.

For a specialist audience, it is clear: supermoto conversions, training, off-road use and liaison stages are different topics. For a broad audience, however, this quickly blurs into a blanket problem with “illegal motorcycles”.

Scale and CO2 share

The scale is hardly explained in general news coverage. As of 1 January 2026, Germany has around 61.34 million registered motor vehicles, of which around 49.5 million are cars and slightly over 5 million are motorcycles. Total German greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 were around 649 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the transport sector accounted for around 22.3 percent of that in 2024.

Category	Order of magnitude	Share of total German greenhouse gas emissions
Germany total	approx. 649 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year	100 percent
Transport total	approx. 145 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year	approx. 22.3 percent
Motor vehicle fleet in Germany	61.34 million vehicles	Fleet size, not a direct emissions share
Car fleet	approx. 49.5 million vehicles	largest single block within road transport
Motorcycles in total	slightly over 5.0 million vehicles	approx. 0.3 percent according to KTM’s statement
Sport enduro niche	estimated approx. 50,000 to 120,000 vehicles in Germany	approx. 0.001 to 0.01 percent, own estimate

The estimate for sport enduros is deliberately only an order of magnitude. With 50,000 to 120,000 vehicles, very low annual mileage and roughly 6 to 10 litres of fuel consumption per 100 kilometres, a rough calculation lands rather in the range of a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 per year. Even if the estimate is off by a factor of 3, this group of vehicles remains practically irrelevant for the overall balance of transport.

That does not mean that noise, local exhaust emissions or registration questions do not matter. But a small, rarely used vehicle niche does not become a relevant emissions problem for the entire transport sector because of this. For the German CO2 balance, this group is practically irrelevant. For other emissions as well, the absolute scale remains limited by low unit numbers and low annual mileage.

What is likely to happen now

In the short term, no big breakthrough is to be expected. A longer administrative process is more likely. The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) will request information, manufacturers and importers will set out their position, dealer communication will be examined more closely, and competition conversions will probably have to be documented even more cleanly in future.

The KBA told ZDF that it is actively pursuing the tips and will take action against the economic operators involved if deviations from regulations are established.

Mass decommissionings seem less likely in the short term. This would require clarifying, for individual vehicles, in what condition they were handed over, when they were converted, by whom the conversion was carried out and whether they were actually used in public road traffic afterwards.

Realistic rules

A separate German special rule for sport enduros sounds obvious from a rider’s perspective, but is hardly realistic politically and legally. In Europe, motorcycles fall under the harmonised type approval for L-category vehicles. This system expressly also applies to enduro and trial motorcycles. Germany therefore cannot simply create its own national category that solves all practical problems in enduro sport.

A more realistic option would be a practical clarification within the existing rules that relieves manufacturers, dealers and customers alike. Sport enduros are sold legally homologated. If a customer subsequently wants a competition conversion for off-road or sport use, this separation must be cleanly documented for all parties: homologated state, conversion request, area of use, notice that the road registration expires.

This logic does not only concern enduros. Cars, too, have a large tuning and motorsport scene that constantly distinguishes between series registration, entry in the papers, race track and everyday use. With e-bikes the principle is similar: a pedelec is legally a bicycle up to 25 km/h, but through tuning it quickly becomes a motor vehicle without the appropriate operating licence, insurance and registration.

Conclusion

If a sport enduro has to be restricted on paper so much that it has hardly anything to do with its real purpose any more, a grey area inevitably arises. The rulebook then formally fulfils its purpose, but misses reality.

The case therefore shows less a specific manufacturer problem than a fundamental problem of modern regulation: vehicles are standardised ever more finely, while real-world use is often much more varied. This applies not only to enduros, but also to cars, tuning, track days and e-bikes. Everywhere the same question arises: what happens when a vehicle is formally squeezed into a narrow registration category although practice is much broader?

Author: Christoph Jadanowski / endurocult.de
Publication date: 2026-05-28