Husqvarna's logo depicts a gun sight viewed from the end of the barrel, reflecting its armament origins. After producing bicycles in the late 19th century, the company entered motorcycle manufacturing in 1903 using imported engines; in-house engine production began in 1916 with a 550 cc four-stroke 50-degree side-valve V-twin. That same year Husqvarna secured a contract with the Swedish Army and began entering cross-country and long-distance races.
The company competed in Grand Prix road racing in the 350 cc and 500 cc classes during the 1930s, becoming Sweden's largest motorcycle manufacturer by 1939. Racing bikes of the era derived from a 50-degree V-twin prototype built by Folke Mannerstedt in 1931. The factory team beat the Norton works team at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1932 with a 1–2 finish by Ragnar Sundqvist and Gunnar Kalén. Stanley Woods and Ernie Nott subsequently joined the works riding team; Nott finished third in the 350 cc Junior TT and Woods ran out of fuel eight miles from the finish of the Senior TT that year. In 1935 Husqvarna withdrew racing support, but Woods won the Swedish Grand Prix — the fourth consecutive year a Husqvarna had won — on a 500 cc machine weighing 279 pounds.
With the rise of motocross as a discipline, Husqvarna developed the Silverpilen ("the silver arrow" in Swedish), a 75 kg lightweight single-cylinder machine with telescoping front forks and hydraulic-damped suspension. The 1959 motocross championship went to Rolf Tibblin on a 250 cc Husqvarna. Bill Nilsson won the 1960 world 500 cc motocross championship on a four-stroke Husqvarna. Through the 1960s and 1970s Husqvarna dominated off-road racing, winning 14 motocross world championships across the 125 cc, 250 cc, and 500 cc divisions, 24 enduro world championships, and 11 Baja 1000 victories. In 1983 the company introduced a 500 cc four-stroke competition bike notable for being lightweight and air-cooled; it was the predecessor to the Husaberg brand.
In 1987 the motorcycle division was sold to Italian manufacturer Cagiva, later becoming part of MV Agusta. Managers and engineers unwilling to relocate to Italy founded Husaberg, which was acquired by KTM in 1995. Production moved to Varese, Italy.
In July 2007 BMW Motorrad purchased Husqvarna for a reported €93 million, intending to position it as "the two-wheeled version of what Mini is to the BMW's car division," while maintaining development, sales, and production at Varese.
On 31 January 2013 BMW announced the sale of Husqvarna to Pierer Industrie, whose CEO Stefan Pierer was also CEO of KTM. Direct ownership was subsequently transferred to KTM, establishing Husqvarna Motorcycle GmbH as part of the KTM Group. Motorcycle production at Mattighofen in Austria began on 7 October 2013. At the same time, Husaberg was re-absorbed into Husqvarna, ending the Husaberg brand's independent existence.
Since 2025, Husqvarna has been wholly owned by Bajaj Group.
Husqvarna names off-road models using a prefix system: "F" for four-stroke, "T" for two-stroke; "C" for motocross, "E" for enduro, "X" for cross-country, "S" for supermoto; followed by engine displacement. The suffix "i" previously indicated transfer port injection. Numeric designations such as 401, 501, and 701 are approximate values derived from corresponding KTM platform engines (373 cc, 510 cc, and 690 cc respectively).
Street bikes use Swedish names: Vitpilen ("the white arrow") and Svartpilen ("the black arrow"), first shown as prototypes at EICMA in Milan in 2014 and made publicly available in 2018. In 2017, Husqvarna introduced a two-stroke fuel injection system called Transfer Port Injection (TPI), conforming to Euro 4 emissions regulations.
Since 2015, Rockstar Energy has been the title sponsor of Husqvarna's off-road factory team, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Team, which competes across AMA Supercross and Motocross series. The team has taken titles including the 2016 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, the 2015/2016 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, the 2016 AMA EnduroCross Championship, and the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship.
In road racing, Husqvarna entered Moto3 in 2014 and 2015 using a KTM-based FR250GP, re-entered from the 2020 season, and from 2023 sponsors the Intact GP team in Moto2 under the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP name.
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