BMW To Enter Cruiser Market In 2020: How And Why

Exclusive inside story detailing BMW Motorrad’s plans to return to the Cruiser segment in 2020, with the introduction of all-new specifically developed 2021 model(s)

Fresh from its eighth consecutive record year of sales in 2018, after delivering a total of 165,566 units last year en route to its self-imposed target of breaking the 200,000 annual sales barrier in 2020, BMW is now getting ready to go head to head with Harley-Davidson and Indian on the American giants’ home turf, by developing a range of Cruiser models as a means to help achieve the coveted status of World’s No. 1 in the premium motorcycle sector, which it also seeks. It’s not the first time that the German manufacturer has tried to grab a slice of Harley’s business, after manufacturing 40,218 examples of the R1200C Cruiser model between 1997 and 2004, including a few thousand examples of the smaller engined version, the R850C produced from 1997 to 2000. But both C-models were killed off by Herbert Diess when he took over as President/ CEO of BMW Motorrad in 2003, citing as a prime reason for discontinuing them the apparent unsuitability of the Boxer twin engine to compete with Harley in a marketplace segment where a V-twin engine was practically ubiquitous. Strangely, despite the sheer volume of overall Cruiser sales numbers at a time when Harley was selling well over 300,000 bikes a year, the dynamic Dr. Diess (now heading up the VAG Group, and thus ultimate boss of Ducati) chose instead to develop an inline four-cylinder Superbike with chain final drive to compete with the Japanese in the Hypersport sector, rather than create an equally out of character (for BMW) narrow-angle pushrod V-twin to take on Harley.

I wonder if he’d make the same decision today?