New Delhi:
Demand and sales of the commuter two-wheeler segment in India have not yet reached normalcy, but the premium category has been on the growth path. BMW Motorrad, the two- wheeler division of the German luxury carmaker, also walked the similar terrain and reported its best-ever annual sales in India during 2022 by selling 7,282 units, up from 5,191 units in 2021.“The calendar year 2022 is a record year for BMW Motorrad in terms of sales volumes. It is for the first time that India has clocked over 7,000 units, marking a year-on-year (YoY) growth of about 40%. And this is a lot for us; India is now in our top 10 global markets,” Ralf Rodepeter, head of marketing, BMW Motorrad, said.
“The biggest market is still our home market, but there is not much growth anymore since it is saturated. The India is one of the markets which really has the potential and where we want to make the brand stronger,” he said.
Rodepeter noted that G 310 did a fantastic job on leading the charge in India. “It is an important model that we call the smart cc. We are not talking about small cc because in India 310 is already a huge bite. Even in Europe, we are looking at a little bit smaller one, but in Europe and in America as well it has done an excellent job to get young people through the brand.”
The company which sells a range of motorcycles in India said its G 310 R, G 310 RR and G 310 GS commanded a share of 90% in motorcycle sales in 2022. Other popular models were S 1000 RR, R 1250 GS / GSA and C 400 GT scooter.
Even during H1 2022, the luxury motorcycle brand registered sales of 3,114 units, marking a YoY growth of 56.7%.
Going forward, the automaker remains bullish about the growth. “We are clearly on a growth strategy, not only globally but also in India. We are confident of growing even more in 2023 because it will be the 100th anniversary of BMW Motorrad globally,” Rodepeter said.
The company’s head of marketing assured that all the bikes that the company is building for the world will also be for India. “It may happen that sometimes because of production limitations it takes a bit longer for the overseas markets. For instance the CE 04 will be in the market next month, but we introduced it during the last summer in Europe.”
Globally, BMW Motorrad reported the highest-ever sales at a total of 202,895 motorcycles and scooters, a year-on-year growth of about 4.4%. The Europe, Americas and Asia regions, in particular, posted the new sales high.
BMW Motorrad, TVS partnership
About the collaboration with TVS, Rodepeter said that it is going good and there is definitely more to come. “When we talk about the 500 cc market, we are talking about 1.2 million bikes worldwide, which is not a huge number actually. If we really want to get more people to the brand, we have to expand in the smaller segments as well. So this year you will see more about the CE 02 concept electric bike. But to make that clear, we are still a premium brand.”
In December 2021, TVS and BMW Motorrad said that they will jointly develop new platforms and future technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs) and the first product through this cooperation will be out by 2023.
In April 2013, the companies signed a cooperation agreement to manufacture sub-500cc motorcycles for the world. The nine years of partnership has introduced three products on the 310cc platform – BMW G 310 R, BMW 310 GS, and TVS Apache RR 310. All three products are manufactured at the Hosur facility of TVS.
BMW Motorrad also brings in models like S 1000 RR into the Indian market as a completely built-up unit.
Also Read:
While the TVS Apache RR 310 is the TVS Motor Company’s flagship sports bike, the BMW G 310 RR is the entry-level fully-faired sports bike in BMW Motorrad’s lineup. Considering the two roll out from the same production line at TVS’ Hosur plant, what’s the difference and what’s similar? Here goes.
Exclusive products for both the companies will be developed on the common platforms, and the companies will retail their products globally.
