Side-by-sides usually look like farm equipment that learned to jump, so the Arrow lands as a shock. KTM X-Bow’s first off-road machine wears a rally-raid silhouette, a closed nose, sharp surfacing and graphics that run the full length of the body, and it looks closer to a Dakar prototype than to anything on a dealer lot today.
The shape isn’t decoration for its own sake.
Under the panels sits an Audi turbocharged engine, a dual-clutch gearbox with low range and nearly two feet of suspension travel, a spec sheet that reads like a sports car that wandered into the desert and decided to stay.
A rally silhouette instead of a utility box
Two versions share the same basic form. The standard Arrow wears KTM orange over black, while the Black Limited Edition goes dark with carbon body panels, a roof-mounted spare and huge Arrow lettering cut along its flanks. The cabin sits low and tight inside a chromoly steel cage, and the bodywork wraps around it like body armour.
Short overhangs, a high beltline and 32-inch tyres on the standard car keep the stance purposeful from every angle.
Even the lighting follows rally practice, with high-performance LED headlights as standard and six extra roof-mounted LEDs on the limited car. KTM X-Bow knows this design language cold. The company has built lightweight Audi-powered sports cars since 2008, and the Arrow carries that road-car surfacing into a segment that usually starts with a cargo bed and works backwards.
Audi power and a dual-clutch gearbox do the running
The engine is the Audi 2.0L TFSI from the EA888 EVO4 family, a direct-injected turbo four with a long record in Volkswagen Group performance cars.
In the standard Arrow it makes 280 hp, and the Black Limited Edition targets up to 330 hp, which would put it at the top of the production side-by-side field. No belt drive here. A Volkswagen DQ381 seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox handles the power, with a low-range system for slow, technical ground and selectable two- or four-wheel drive on both versions.
Drive modes split three for the standard car and four for the limited car.
The limited car also adds a limited-slip rear differential, a hydraulic fly-off handbrake and a rear differential disconnect, rally hardware that invites a very different driving style. KTM X-Bow hasn’t published a torque figure yet, and the 330 hp number stays a target until production cars run. The hardware underneath the claim, though, comes from a proven automotive bin rather than a clean-sheet experiment.
Fuel capacity sits at 14.5 gallons, the cargo rack behind the cabin carries up to 220 lb, and storage volume runs to at least 100 litres spread around the cabin and body.
Travel, tyres and a cabin with air conditioning
Double wishbones sit at all four corners, with shocks developed alongside KW Reiger. The target is roughly 600 mm, or 23.6 inches, of wheel travel at both ends, with 16.9 inches of ground clearance on a 114.2-inch wheelbase. The standard car rides on manually adjustable three-way dampers and 32×10-15 Maxxis RAZR XT tyres.
The Black Limited Edition moves to electrically adjustable dampers with hydraulic bump stops, active anti-roll bars and 35-inch tyres, and it weighs an estimated 2,425 lb dry against the standard car’s 2,202 lb. Inside, Sabelt seats and harnesses hold the crew, a 10-inch centre display runs navigation and group-ride connectivity, and a rearview camera watches the tail. The limited car closes its cabin completely and adds air conditioning, premium audio, roof-mounted LEDs and a removable 4,500 lb winch.
A wearable RFID tag works as the key. It’s a small detail, but it suits a machine that expects its driver to be covered in dust by lunchtime.
Underbody protection runs aluminium at the front and rear on the standard car with a plastic centre section, while the limited car carries aluminium across all three sections.
Rally-raid people shaped the whole programme
Guillaume de Mévius, a Dakar competitor, leads the investor group that bought KTM X-Bow in 2025, and his G Rally Team fed rally-raid test work straight into the Arrow. Development driver Puck Klaassen also turned laps and kilometres in the programme, and the company’s own history page traces the project back through that competition work. That background explains the priorities.
Long travel, a real cage, a handbrake that disconnects the rear axle and a gearbox with fixed ratios all come from rally thinking, not from the recreational playbook the big UTV brands wrote.
Reservations open on November 17 through the dealer network and the KTM X-Bow site, with the 500 numbered Black Limited Edition cars going first. First deliveries aren’t due until late 2027, and the quoted dollar prices are indicative figures built on an assumed exchange rate, so final US pricing can still move. The design closes the loop.
Nothing else in the class looks like the Arrow, and nothing else in the class runs an Audi engine through a DSG, so the car sells its difference at a glance long before a spec sheet enters the conversation.
At $59,800 for the standard car and $98,600 for the Black Limited Edition, the Arrow asks sports-car money for a side-by-side. The spec sheet, and especially the silhouette, make the ask easier to understand.