100 Years, 1 Page

The Motorcycle Division

BMW Motorrad is the motorcycle division of BMW. Their motorcycle history began in 1921 when the company commenced manufacturing engines for other companies after they were forced to stop manufacturing aircraft engine after WWI. BMW introduced the first motorcycle under its name, the R32 model, in 1923.

The fallout of WWII and the plummeting sales in the 1950s saw the company struggle in the motorcycle category for some time, but in the 1970s they bounced with a completely revamped line-up that included /5 series.

BMW Motorrad regularly enters its motorcycles in the Dakar Rally, an annual car, truck, and motorcycle race that runs from Europe to Africa. BMW Motorrad motorcycles have won the Dakar Rally six times. In 2007, BMW Motorrad announced its entry to the 2009 Superbike World Championship season, where it is racing the BMW S1000RR.

In its 90-year history, BMW Motorrad has progressed to bring state-of-the-art technological advancements and innovations in the world of motorcycles, and while still being a relevant part of the company, many don’t immediately think of the 2-wheeler when they think of BMW.

And for those who are wondering, the model used in the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, is the BMW R1200C.

The First Car Came in 1929

BMW’s automobile history had begun much earlier than 1927, in the form of proposals and prototypes. Though no details are known to exist, the mentions of the term ‘automobile’ first appeared in an 1918 in written or verbal form, it’s not quite clear.

In the mid-1920s, two former employees of Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Max Friz and Gotthilf Dürrwächter, were given the assignment to design a BMW production car. The prototype of this design was the first car known to be made by BMW.

Dixi Automobil Werke was a company in the 1920s that had one sole product and was struggling with the difficult economic climate, so in 1928, BMW bought them and their 1927 3/15 model, which was a licensed copy of the Austin 7. With the acquisition, the Dixi 3/15 became BMW’s first production car. A year later, BMW rolled out the 3/15 DA-2, a revision to the original Dixi as their first in-house manufactured production car.

After the Austin 7 licence ended in 1932, BMW moved toward designing and developing their own car to take them to the future. In 1933, BMW introduced the 303 model. It was larger and more conventional than their earlier 3/20 model, the 303 used BMW’s new M78 engine, making it the first BMW automobile to use a straight-6 engine. The 303 was also the first to use the “kidney grille” that would become the most important characteristic of BMW styling until today. The 303 formed the basis for the four-cylinder 309 and the larger-engined 315 and 319, while the 303 chassis supported the 315/1 and 319/1 roadsters and the restyled 329.

BMW would develop a few other models by the end of the 1930s, such as the 328 sports roadster and the 335 luxury 3.5 litre large sedan, but with the outbreak of WWII, most of the production would come to a halt very quickly.

The Impact of World War II

The second World War brought along a lot of issues and changes for BMW in the 1940s and 1950s which hampered the company’s ability to make any real technological progress for a period of more than 10 years.

The German invasion of Poland and commencement of hostilities meant that manufacturing facilities in Germany were directed by the Nazi regime to re-focus on the manufacture of products required to support the war effort. For BMW, that meant returning to the production of aircraft engines. We’re going backwards here.

Feeling out of control of their own company, BMW tried to fight the Nazi regime, but it was to no avail. They were forced to do as they told and in the process they also shut down production of all non-military motorcycles at their main Munich manufacturing facility. The R12 and R75 models were supplied to the Wehrmacht.

At the end of the war, BMW plants were confiscated by Allied troops, and production of aero and jet engines for the Luftwaffe was shut down. BMW was heavily bombed which reducing most of the company’s production facilities to rubble.

In the east, the company’s factory at Eisenach was taken over by the Soviet Awtowelo group. A mildly revised 327 entered production in 1948, followed by the 326-based 340 in 1949. These were sold under the BMW name with the BMW logo attached to them. To protect its trademarks, BMW legally severed its Eisenach branch from the company. Awtowelo continued production of the 327 and 340 under the Eisenacher Motorenwerk (EMW) brand with a red and white version of the logo until 1955.

By the end of the 1940s BMW had returned to motorcycle manufacturing but still had not restarted any efforts with the automobiles. It would take a further few years until BMW produced new models, first of which would be the 501 and 502 models. After seeing that the German market was moving away from mopeds and motorcycles, BMW developed the licensed Isetta bubble car which sold a solid tally of 161,728 by the end of its run.

By the late 1950s, BMW was in financial trouble and losing money. They almost merged with Daimler-Benz and refused bids to be acquired by American Motors and the Rootes Group. With the help of the 700 model and the New Class 1500, BMW had come back to its feet and was able to offer dividends to its shareholders for the first time since World War II.

Resurgent 60s & Early 70s

By 1966, the Munich plant had reached the limits of its production capacity. Original plans to build an entirely new factory were scrapped once the company had purchased the crisis-ridden Hans Glas GmbH with its factories in Dingolfing and Landshut. In the decades to come, the Dingolfing plant would forge into BMW’s largest.

1968 saw the launch of the large “New Six” sedans and coupés. The sedans had the internal development name ‘E3’, while the coupés are ‘E9’. This nomenclature convention would become more familiar to the public in the next 40 years.

Eberhard von Kuenheim would become a key figure in BMW’s success in the 1960s. He is praised with taking the company to higher levels by transforming the national firm with a European-focused reputation into a global brand with international prestige. By the mid 1960s, BMW had become commercially successful. In December 1971, BMW moved into their current headquarters in Munich. The architecture of the headquarters building is based on a four-cylinder engine.

The early 1970s would be become the predecessor to the modern era line-up and those that we are familiar with today. In 1972, the 5 Series was launched to replace the New Six sedans. The New Class coupés were replaced by the 3 Series three years later, and newly introduced larger sedans became the 7 Series in 1977. Thus the three-tier sports sedan range was formed, a formula that BMW followed into the 1990s. In addition to these, the 6 Series coupés that replaced the CS, were also added to the mix as the market demanded.

Kuenheim’s influence was very evident as he made an 18-fold turnover, quadrupled car production, and tripled motorcycle production from 1970 and 1993.

Everything Else Under the Umbrella

Okay, maybe this section doesn’t really fit in the first 50 years for the most part, but it has to go somewhere and there’s a few more things to cover.

In the early 1990s, BMW and Rolls-Royce Motors began a joint venture that would see the new Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph and Bentley Arnage adopt BMW engines. In 1998, BMW became the sole owner of the brand and began work on new models, first of which would be the Phantom released in 2003.

BMW bought Land Rover in 1994, with Land Rover models using major BMW components under the skin. Most notably, the third-generation Range Rover had already been late in its development by the time BMW sold Land Rover to Ford in 2000. As a result, this model shared electronics with the E39 5 Series until a major update in 2005, and used BMW’s 4.4L V8 until 2006.

BMW owns another historic British car brand, the MINI. In 1994, BMW acquired the Rover Group, which had the MINI under it’s name, and in 2000, BMW retained the MINI but got rid of all other brands and sub-brands that they had gained with the Rover Group. The first generation MINI Hatch was released in 2000 when the original MINI was discontinued. This was the first model release under BMW.

Outside of Germany, BMW has various manufacturing plants around the world in countries that include USA, South Africa, Austria, China, Mexico, England, and Netherlands and in addition they have assembly plants in Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, India and Brazil.

BMW has participated in Formula 1 since 1952 as either an engine supplier or constructor or both. Notable drivers include Nelson Piquet, Jensen Button, Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and test driver Sebastian Vettel who scored his first points in F1 in his only race with BMW Sauber in 2007.

Norbert Reithofer is the current CEO of BMW which has 105,876 employees and operates with a €76.84 billion revenue.