P58
Interview
BMW MOTORRAD CEO DR. MARKUS SCHRAMM
The C evolution
scooter has paved
the way for BMW's
e-mobility technology
to eventually make
it onto full-sized
motorcycles.
market is not only important for attracting young
people to BMW, but also for electro-mobility. You
will see this coming very soon in urban areas, and
you cannot offer electro-mobility scooters without
having any position in the overall scooter market.
I believe our new C 400 X is very attractive, and
it seems the excellent response we've had to it
from the media and also from fans of the BMW
brand confirms that. It works! And now we have
launched the C 400 GT at EICMA.
With the new C 400 GT, you've created a
product that is very BMW, and unlike anything
else in that quite significant midsize scooter
market segment. Do you plan to go even lower
in capacity—to 250cc, say, which is a much
larger though maybe even more price-con-
scious segment?
We are now concentrating on delivering market
success with the 400cc models, and having the
brand develop around them. That's the number
one priority. I'm not prepared to allow any compro-
mise on quality to achieve a specific price target,
so we'll be focusing on this 400cc segment, we'll
see electro-mobility scooters developing, but
that's all for now.
Your C evolution electric scooter has been
in production since 2014, but only in relatively
small numbers. BMW is the market leader in
electric four-wheelers in Europe, with the i3
and i8. So, do you plan to go into electric mo-
torcycles as well as scooters?
I think in terms of electro-mobility, on the devel-
opment side we will see urban mobility products
dominating, so we are going into e-scooters even
more, and you will soon see more such products
from BMW. We are indeed also thinking about
other EV products besides scooters, but not
just yet. We want to do it step-by-step, and the
primary focus for us right now is on e-scooters.
So, for example I can't imagine having an electric
enduro model yet, but we'll see!
A very important thing is electro-mobility in two-
wheelers is different from the car industry. In the
car sector, it's basically government regulations
which force the industry, and thereby the customer,
into E-mobility. But then the customers say, "Oh,
