In this week’s episode of ‘The Chiefs’, Monocle’s editorial director Tyler Brûlé is joined by BMW Motorrad’s chief designer Edgar Heinrich. They discuss why the future of the two-wheeler is looking bright and the innovative design process behind the upcoming CE 04. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As we head into spring and cities from London to Tokyo begin the path to full reopening, vital questions of how will travel within them and between them are being asked.
To answer these questions in the coming weeks, the chiefs will be talking to executives in the travel and hospitality industry for their outlook and business strategies for 2021 and beyond.
We start off today by looking at a major player in the mobility market.
Though long overshadowed by its four wheeler friend, the motorbike and scooter are now ready to share the limelight.
Having asserted their utility during the pandemic as a safe and agile personal vehicle despite the dominance of the bicycle, they offer an increasingly sustainable solution to individual mobility in our densest cities.
And as we return to normality, the two wheeler looks sure to capitalize on these assets.
With an exciting new model en route, there's one player leading the charge.
Joining me today from the company headquarters in Munich is Edgar Heinrich, chief designer at BMW Motorrad.
He walks us through the development of the sexy new model, the CEO 4 innovative design processes, how this new model might fundamentally alter the market and how to balance BMW's incredibly broad consumer needs.
I'm Tyler Berlin, Zurich and this is the Chiefs on Monocle 24.
Edgar, first, thank you very much for joining us.
I've been wanting to speak to you and certainly, or at least someone senior from BMW Motorhead for a while because I have this burning question.
There has been so much attention over, you could argue the last decade, but certainly the last five years in particular, of course, about mobility, in particular e mobility.
And it's been the car that has been the star of the show.
There's been of course so much focus on what is happening, you know, in terms of battery technology, et cetera, et cetera.
And I've always sort of scratched my head when I've been in Taipei, when I've been in Bangkok, when I've been in cities which have a lot of two wheel motorized vehicles wondering where is the motorbike, where is the scooter in all of this story?
And I'm wondering maybe, you know, as someone who is of course overseeing design and creating desirability, what's happened?
Has the motorcycle been left out of this somehow?
I mean, that's a pretty complex question.
First of all, I think the first reason probably is you have to differentiate between, let's say the, what I call the Western or the matured markets and maybe the third world markets or the emerging markets like India or Taipei, what you just said, or China or this kind of thing where two Wheelers is actually really about mobility and the need of mobility, like utility.