Furthering their long-standing partnership, TVS Motor Company and German auto major BMW Motorrad on Friday announced the joint development and production of electric bike BMW CE 02 at the former’s manufacturing facility at Hosur, Tamil Nadu, aimed at rolling it out in global markets.
Under the partnership forged 10 years ago, BMW has been designing and conceptualising the products and TVS Motor has been producing them at their facility.
BMW will launch the CE 02 in Europe and subsequently move to other markets. However, its India debut will take some more time. The e-bike was unveiled globally recently.
KN Radhakrishnan, director &CEO, told visiting media persons at the Hosur plant that this is the first time that both companies have decided to jointly design and produce two-wheelers. Bolstering their partnership, the companies will roll out products at regular intervals.
Talking about the BMW CE 02, Markus Schramm, head of BMW Motorrad, said: “The e-bike will have a range of 90km on full charge and would be launched in Europe during April 2024 at 8,500 euros.”
Asserting that the BMW is not going to foray into the highly-competitive 110-cc-scooter segment globally, he said that they are jointly developing e-bike in the under-sub-500cc segment with the same performance.
“This e-bike is targeted at the young population. As the EV segment is bringing in big change, CE 02 is going to delight customers globally and bring big change,” said Radhakrishnan.
TVS Motor and BMW produce five motorcycles: BMW G310R, BMW GS310, BMW G310RR, Apache RR310 and Apache RTR 310 at TVS plant in Hosur.
On Friday, TVS and BMW Motorrad announced the roll out of 150,000th unit of its 310-cc series. Currently, TVS Motor produces 12% of BMW Motorrad’s total global volumes.
TVS Motor and BMW Motorrad had extended the partnership in December 2021, covering EV products. In line with this, TVS Motor and BMW Motorrad are jointly developing new platforms and future technologies, including EVs.
As part of this extended association, TVS Motor Company’s scope includes the design and development of future BMW Motorrad products and delivering world-class quality, supply chain management and industrialisation. “Enhancing this partnership, BMW CE 02 production has now begun in TVS Motor’s Hosur manufacturing plant,” Radhakrishnan said.
(The writer was at Hosur at the invitation of TVS Motor Company)
