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Hans Blesse of BMW Motorrad USA on Scooters and Superbikes

Hans Blesse became the new Vice President for BMW Motorrad USA in February 2012, replacing the retired Pieter de Waal. With just days before the end of 2012, Blesse speaks openly on some of BMW's greatest achievements this year and future plans.
Hans Blesse, VP of BMW Motorrad USA 1 photo
Photo: BMW
Despite the absence of some clearly defined intentions, it looks like we're going to see more scooters from BMW in the future, as it's clear to the Bavarians that commuting in crowded cities causes more and more people to buy smaller vehicles for the daily road to work.

Blesse himself adds: “In Madrid, I lived about 16 miles from the office. I had a beautiful Laguna Blue M3, and my average speed to work every morning was 18 mph. After about a month of that, I said, “Forget that, I’m riding a motorcycle to work, rain or shine." The commute that took about an hour in a car now took 20 minutes. And it was a reliable 20 minutes, regardless of traffic."

And with more and more Indian partners interested in getting BMW engines, we could expect smaller-displacement vehicles being developed, for the Asian, European and North American markets.

As for the higher end of the BMW bikes range, Blesse admits they've had no less than three bikes which have been most successful: the new S1000RR HP4, the 6-cylinder K1600 series and the boxer bikes (read R1200GS). With US dealers selling more S1000RRs and six-cylinder bikes than the German ones, the US market became BMW's biggest in terms of absolute volume.

Remains to see the figures for the first quarter of 2013 and how well will the new R1200GS fare, especially as the orange competition (KTM) won't be bringing their new 1190 Adventure/ Adventure R in the US until 2014. KTM will however bring the 990 Adventure Baja and the 690 Duke to North America... and that's not to be easily overlooked.
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