TVS & BMW Motorrad To Jointly Develop New Electric Vehicles

TVS and BMW Motorrad had first announced a tie-up in 2013 which saw the Indian and German two-wheeler marques combine resources and tech to produce bikes like the TVS Apache RR310 and the BMW G 310R and the G 310 GS. The linkup has seen BMW Motorrad deliver its best-ever sales performance in the country this year selling 5,000 new two-wheelers by December with around 90 per cent of these vehicles being the G 310 R and G 310 GS. The first new product of the newly announced expanded partnership between BMW Motorrad and TVS will arrive in the next 24 months.

Announcing the expansion and extension of his company's partnership with BMW Motorrad, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company, said, "In the nine years of our long-term strategic partnership, we have always cherished the common core values we share with BMW Motorrad: focus on quality, engineering prowess, innovation and customer satisfaction. These factors and our commitment to deliver superior quality products with a strong value proposition has been key to the success of all three products launched from the platform. The new world of future mobility encompasses a strong play through alternate solutions, including electric mobility. Expanding this successful partnership to EVs and other newer platforms will create opportunities to deliver advanced technology and aspirational products to global markets and bring valuable synergies to both companies."

Speaking about the extended and expanded partnership with TVS Motor Company, Markus Schramm, Head of BMW Motorrad, said, "In light of our fruitful association with TVS Motor Company, we are delighted to extend and expand our cooperation agreement to include long-term partnership and joint development of new platforms and technologies, including electric vehicles. Our strong synergies have led to the development of impressive offerings in the sub-500cc segment. Since the launch, BMW G 310 R and BMW G 310 GS single-cylinder models continue to enjoy unrivalled popularity with over 100,000 global customers. We look forward to the future of this cooperation."

TVS and BMW Motorrad claim that the newly extended partnership will develop common platforms by mutually tapping the emerging technologies in the future mobility space while keeping in mind the requirements of customers in various markets across the globe. Both TVS and BMW Motorrad will develop exclusive vehicles for each brand on these common platforms, which the companies will then retail across the world.

Thoughts On The Expanded Partnership Between TVS & BMW Motorrad

TVS currently sells the iQube electric scooter in India and its newly expanded partnership with BMW Motorrad is likely to see the company extend its electric vehicle lineup rapidly in a segment of the market that is growing quickly. We expect the newly expanded partnership to push out more electric bikes and maybe even a scooter or two as the two companies look to plant their flag in India's fast-growing electric vehicle market.