Sales numbers

nielsm

nielsm

Well-known member
www.tankofcoffee.com
Head of BMW Motorrad announced that there have been over 20K R18 bikes sold across the variants in the Roctane/R12 Nine T intro video. It’s ~2.5 years since launch, so that’s an average of ~8K/year. BMW sold just over 200K bikes last year, so it’s a small percentage overall, but for a completely new category, I imagine they are happy with ~4% of overall sales in the first couple of years. It might be a higher percentage in the last year since his number was since launch.

But overall BMW sales spiked following the launch of the R18, from around 175K in 2019 to 202K in 2022. Even if the R18 didn’t sell a ton, it seems to have had a halo impact overall on the brand, jumping sales by about 13% over the past few years when the overall motorcycle market declined.
 
I was quite amazed they’ve sold 20,000. 4% of sales means it will remain something they keep in the lineup until emissions or recession push the pencil pushers over the edge on reasonable.
 
Sometimes I think I'm the only one in the state of Indiana that has one' Our local BMW dealership has the same R18s on the floor as they did a year ago!
 
If the handle bars on the R18 reached further back as on the Harley touring bikes, and if the engine had a counterbalancer, the R18 would rival HD in sales.
 
Mr Si said:
They have apparently produced 106000 RnineT from 2013. This is the same 10000 units per year as R18. Nobody complained RnineT was a marketing failure, so not bad for R18.
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I think the difference with the R18 launch was it going head to head with the lifestyle brand of HD and everything that goes with it. The R9T wasn’t set up to have an obvious rival. Some HD fanboys wanted it to fail and there were a number of negative reviews and click bait YouTube videos describing it as a failure. Think most of that has gone away now and people can finally appreciate the bike for what it is, not what it isn’t. Those sales numbers are a lot stronger than I thought tbh.
 
Zamar said:
Sometimes I think I'm the only one in the state of Indiana that has one' Our local BMW dealership has the same R18s on the floor as they did a year ago!
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I worked at a BMW / Indian dealer and we would get a lot of Indian / HD guys come in and laugh at it (purely because of the badge). Most were so shut off to the idea of a non-American cruiser they couldnt even get past that to see what the r18 could be. I did get a few out on test drives and they all came back saying how ballanced and well put together it was compared to their HD / Indian, but they would never, could never buy it becuase they would be laughed right out of their riding group(s). Its hilarious to me how fragile some peoples egos are that they can admit they liked the bike better than what theyve been riding but cant buy it for fear of laughter by school children.
 
R12C-R18TC said:
If the handle bars on the R18 reached further back as on the Harley touring bikes, and if the engine had a counterbalancer, the R18 would rival HD in sales.
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Theres a few aftermarkets for the R18's. I put a set on my B and it changed everything about the bike. so much more comfortable and controllable. and the opposing pistons are counterbalances....
 
Nobody said:
I worked at a BMW / Indian dealer and we would get a lot of Indian / HD guys come in and laugh at it (purely because of the badge). Most were so shut off to the idea of a non-American cruiser they couldnt even get past that to see what the r18 could be. I did get a few out on test drives and they all came back saying how ballanced and well put together it was compared to their HD / Indian, but they would never, could never buy it becuase they would be laughed right out of their riding group(s). Its hilarious to me how fragile some peoples egos are that they can admit they liked the bike better than what theyve been riding but cant buy it for fear of laughter by school children.
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That’s funny, I own a few Indians as well. I rode my R18 to the Indian dealership to pick up a part and watched everyone stop and look at the bike and walk away with a dismissive look.
Not that I care, I’d take my bobber R18 over anything Indian has built in that style.
 
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