After the Indian government initative, that allowed manufacturers to import bikes above 800cc category, global bike makers planned to make their mark in 7 million indian two wheeler market. Yamaha recently launched its 1000cc R1 and 1600cc MT-01, others like Suzuki and Honda are mulling at their options. Buoyed by the response for its sedans and SUVs, BMW may also through its hat in the ring. Media reports suggest that BMW will bring its high end bikes to india soon. But
BMW’s Indian president Peter Kronschnabl categorically denied the reports and said “We make very large bikes, the smallest one is 600cc. I do not think there is sufficient demand for BMW bikes in India even now. If we bring bikes here, we will have to set up a complete sales and service network and the numbers at present do not justify that. Perhaps the situation would be different some time later,”. Globally, BMW has separate sales and service networks for cars and motorcycles and there are no plans to merge the two networks for India, he added.
Earlier in 1997 BMW introduced its F-650 in alliance with Hero group but sales failed to take off even after price was discounted to Rs 1.8 lakh (priced Rs 4.5 lakh when introduced). Soon after that BMW halted its indian two wheeler journey.