2014 was a really huge year for BMW’s->ke1398 motorcycle division. I’ve already established the success it’s had in the US, but the company’s global sales of motorcycles was equally, if not more successful for BMW. For the year that just finished, BMW sold a staggering 123,495 motorcycles and scooters. That’s an impressive increase of 7.2 percent from its 2013 numbers when it sold 115,215 units of motorcycles and scooters.
In case the numbers haven’t sunk in yet, the total for 2014 marks the first time in BMW Motorrad’s history that it has breached the 120,000-unit threshold. Leading the way were a handful of R Series->ke3450 models, including the BMW R1200GS, which continued its reign as BMW Motorrad’s most sellable model, selling 24,380 units in 2014. It also comes as no surprise that the R1200GS’ sister model, the off-road capable R1200GS Adventure, was the second most popular model with 16,242 units. Coming in at third was the R1200RT with 12,410 units while the RnineT came just outside the podium at fourth place with 8,4898 units sold.
As far as markets are concerned, BMW Motorrad’s home market of Germany continued to reign supreme, selling 21,714 units for the year, accounting for over 25 percent of all motorcycles sold above the 500cc segment. The USA also came out smelling like roses with 15,301 models sold for the year. Other markets like France, Italy, and Brazil were all huge sellers for BMW, accounting for 11,600, 10,487, and 7,603 units, respectively.
If 2014 was a huge year for BMW Motorrad, then 2015 could be even bigger. The company has a handful of new models on the horizon and if the these models turn out to be popular ones, then you can expect 2015 to be even bigger for BMW. That much we can at least expect by now.
Click past the jump to read more about BMW Motorrad's impressive 2014 sales numbers.
Why it matters
For those who still don't believe the power and appeal of motorcycles, BMW Motorrad will gladly show you its sales figures for the entire year of 2014 to prove its point.
Cars understandably get a lot more of the attention because, well, they're cars. But there's still a significant number of the world's population that find appeal in motorcycles and scooters instead of their four-wheeled counterparts.
You can even go to some Asian countries and the disparity between cars and bikes are laughably enormous. Granted, BMW bikes carry a bit more premium than their Japanese and Asian counterparts, but the mere fact that it sold over 120,000 units for the first time in its history shows that there's still a significant appetite for these types of machines.
Where the demand goes moving forward is still up to how much a bike manufacturer wants to offer to consumers. But with BMW already confident of breaking 2014's total sales numbers in 2015, there's enough reason to believe that more and more customers will be buying motorcycles this year.
It doesn't even have to BMWs, although the company would probably say that they prefer that scenario. But rest assured, motorcycle sales are as healthy as they've ever been and from the looks of things, that ascent is far from finished.