TVS, BMW to deepen collaboration in engineering, designing new products

New Delhi: BMW Motorrad, the premium motorcycling division of the Bavarian luxury automaker, will further its joint engineering and design efforts with Indian partner TVS Motor Company, which has been manufacturing its best-selling 310cc series of motorcycles for a decade, a top BMW executive said on Friday.

TVS Motor Company on Friday began production of BMW’s latest electric two-wheeler product CE 02, a crossover between a motorcycle and a scooter, at its Hosur factory in Tamil Nadu. The factory will be the sole production home for the CE 02 for BMW. the German company will import completely knocked down (CKD) kits from India for local assembly in Germany. The CE 02 will also be launched in India, though the companies haven’t revealed a launch timeline yet. The CE 02 is a fully-electric, low-voltage two-wheeler with 11 horsepower.

This is the first time TVS Motor Company has jointly designed, engineered and industrialised a product with BMW Motorrad. The T310 series was designed entirely by BMW in Germany and further developed for production by TVS in India.

TVS-made motorcycles G310 R, 310GS and G310 RR account for 12% of BMW’s global sales. TVS has manufactured over 150,000 units of these motorcycles so far, serving over 100 global markets, including India. India itself accounted for 5% of BMW Motorrad’s total sales of just over 200,000 motorcycles last year.

“The G310 models are constantly the five best-selling models by BMW. They have become a key pillar of our success in the global premium motorcycle market,” said Markus Schammer, chief executive officer, BMW Motorrad. “It took us three years to go from 100,000 units to 150,000 units but I don’t think it’ll take us another two years to go to 200,000 units with the CE 02 on top,” Schammer said.

“The base of the strategy doesn’t change. We are developing IC-engine and electric mobility platforms based on common engineering and production here at TVS. With the 310 series, the focus of the partnership was on production. Now, with the CE 02, in a very future-oriented technology, TVS took over a significant part of the engineering and this will go further in our collaboration”, Schammer told Mint.

However, Schammer emphasised that its partnership with TVS would be limited to low-voltage electric vehicle platforms.

“Our partnership with BMW Motorrad has yielded five products – the three G310 products for BMW and two of our own products, the Apache RTR 310 and Apache RR 310. This is the result of common values of customer-centricity and really delivering on global aspirations. We are synergizing on producing future technologies and new platforms”, said KN Radhakrishnan, chief executive officer, TVS Motor Company, adding, “India is a huge market for youthful urban products as the country is full of young people and there is huge investment taking place in infrastructure here”.

TVS Motor Company is rapidly scaling its electric vehicle offerings in the market, quickly inching up to compete with electric two-wheeler market leader Ola Electric for the top spot, with its Jupiter-based electric scooter iQube.

The company also showcased the TVS X, its top-end electric two-wheeler, in August.