VOL. 55 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 11, 2018 P55
A
s it heads towards its centenary
as a motorcycle manufacturer in
2023, BMW Motorrad continues
to be the largest European producer of
premium motorcycles and scooters.
In 2017, it delivered 164,153 such
products to customers worldwide, clock-
ing up its seventh annual sales record in
succession via its 1200-plus dealers in
90 countries, as overall sales increased
by 13.2 percent from 2016—a figure it's
hoping to beat this year.
Sales, however, are flat-lining some-
what, with 139,845 customers around
the world taking delivery of a new BMW
motorcycle or scooter during the first 10
months of this year, down 0.3 percent
on 2017.
This has come in a year which saw a
change in top management at the Ger-
man manufacturer, when Dr. Markus
Schramm took over as CEO of BMW
Motorrad on May 1, 2018, after his pre-
decessor Stephan Schaller left the BMW
Group in February with the minimum
of due notice. This left BMW Motorrad
under the provisional management of Hu-
bert Kühner, Head of Finance, who en-
tered retirement in April to be succeeded
as a full-time appointment by 55-year-old
Schramm.
He has been with BMW since 1991,
and immediately before assuming his
new role was previously responsible for
Corporate and Product Strategy Plan-
ning for the entire BMW Group. In his
STEERING
BMW
THE SHIP
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BMW MOTORRAD
