VOL. 52 ISSUE 15 APRIL 14, 2015 P101
But another advantage of supercharg-
ing besides outright performance is that
it allows a small capacity engine to have
the performance of a larger one, but with
reduced emissions and manufacturing
costs—just like the original MINI Cooper S
developed by your car colleagues. Isn't this
of interest to BMW Motorrad?
Let me take a larger view, with two main
headlines, one is "road safety" where we always
invest heavily. We started working on ABS
twenty years ago, before anyone else. We want
to continue working on such features.
The other big headline is, "environmentally
friendly development" and under that is electricity
first, reduced emissions and low consumption in
different engines, and so on. Of course we think of
diesel, we think of Kompressor, we think of Turbo,
we think of all this stuff, and we would be a bad
company if we did not have this in our pre-develop-
ment garage. But that's not to say that we plan to
bring it to market, and we first want to set the pace
in electric.
How about hybrids? TVS's market leader
rival in India, Hero MotoCorp, is about to begin
production of its electric hybrid scooter, the
Leap.
I don't see the cost-effectiveness of developing
"WE ARE NOT A RACING
COMPANY. WE ARE A VOLUME
MANUFACTURER THAT
WANTS TO SHOW THAT OUR
PRODUCTS ARE ON TOP EVEN
IN THAT SUPERSPORT SEGMENT
DERIVED FROM MOTORSPORT
COMPETITION."
(Above) Chaz Davies
(center) and Marco
Melandri (right) stood
on top of the podium
at Sachsenring in
2013, BMW's last
year with factory
involvement in the
championship.
(Far left) Even with
a brand new BMW
S 1000RR Schaller
says no more racing
for BMW (Marco
Melandri 2012).
