Hot on the heels of the news of chief designer David Robb’s departure, BMW has announced his replacement – and it’s a familiar face.
BMW’s new design guru will be Edgar Heinrich. He’s got a long history with the company, starting way back in 1986 as a bike designer. He was head of motorcycle design from 2006 to 2007; David Robb was his boss. Now he’s going to head the BMW Motorrad Design Studio.
Robb was well-respected for ensuring BMW built competitive sport bikes and adventure bikes, and Heinrich was part of that ethos; he worked on the R1100 and K1200 series, the HP2, and the 1150 and 1200 GS bikes. He was also deeply involved in the S1000RR project, the F800/650 bikes, and worked with the six-cylinder tourers. In many ways, he sounds like the perfect replacement for Robb.
For the last couple of years, Heinrich has been working with Indian manufacturer Bajaj, the company that owns a huge stake in KTM. This could not only give Heinrich a keen insight into what his competitors are up to, it could also give him the inside track on what it takes to succeed in the booming Indian motorcycle market – there’s certainly plenty of money to be made there.
