BMW Group India, which has registered its best-ever year-to-date sales in the January to September 2023 period, is seeing its two-wheeler arm – BMW Motorrad India – maintain the strong momentum it witnessed in CY2022.
With a record 6,778 two-wheelers sold in the first nine months of this year, up 26% year on year, BMW Motorrad India has already achieved 93% of the record 7,282 units it had sold in CY2022. It’s a performance which reflects the sustained strong demand for its motorcycles particularly the 310cc series it produces in association with TVS Motor Co, from the latter’s Hosur factory in Tamil Nadu.
BMW Motorrad India had sold 4,667 units in the January-June 2023 period, clocking 50% YoY growth and the highest-ever for the company in the first six months of a calendar year. This also means that 2,111 units have been sold between July-September 2023. As per the company, around 6,000 units or 88% of the January-September 2023 sales comprised the BMW G 310 R, G 310 RR and G 310 GS motorcycles.
On October 6, BMW Motorrad India celebrated 10 years of their partnership with the rollout of the 150,000th 310cc series motorcycle from TVS’ Hosur plant. Together, the two companies have developed and launched five motorcycles – the BMW G 310 R, 310 GS, G310 RR and TVS’ flagship motorcycles, TVS Apache RR 310 and the recently launched Apache RTR 310.
Meanwhile, the core bikes available as completely built-up units (CBUs) saw a growth of 36% YoY. The BMW GS Adventure segment, in particular, has been gaining tremendous popularity and cumulative sales have crossed 10,000 units in India till date. The Sports category with new bikes such as the BMW S 1000 RR, M 1000 RR and M 1000 R is also drawing new buyers.
INDIA CONTRIBUTES OVER 4% TO BMW MOTORRAD’S GLOBAL SALES
With 6,778 units sold in January-September 2023, BMW Motorrad India has contributed to 4.11% of BMW Motorrad’s global sales of 164,908 units (up 3.5% YoY) in the first nine months of the current year. This is better than the 3.58% share it had (7,282 units of global sales of 202,895 units) in CY2022, with three months still to go for CY2023 to come to a close.
Given the ongoing strong demand for premium motorcycles in India and with the 42-day festive season having begun with Navratri from October 14, 2023 and continuing with Diwali in mid-November, expect BMW Motorrad India to continue notching robust sales. While it can be surmised that, at the current pace of sales, the company should cross the 9,000-unit sales mark for CY2023 but how close will it get to the 10,000-unit mark. We’ll simply have to wait and see.