Is A Big Price Hike Coming with the New BMW S1000RR?

It is an odd passion in life, but I find the international pricing schemes by various motorcycle manufacturers to be simply fascinating.

While this will surely mean that I will die alone (so very, very alone), this odd curiosity is bringing up some interesting thoughts about the new BMW S1000RR superbike.

And the signs point to the Bavarian brand’s newest liter bike costing quite the pretty penny in the US market. Let me explain.

While we are still waiting for pricing figures for the 2019 BMW S1000RR in the US market, those number have been released for Europe, and we are already seeing a price increase of €1,200 coming next year to the S1000RR.

With the outgoing BMW S1000RR retailing for $16,000 in the USA, one could expect a modest increase in the price tag to somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 – in other words, $17,000 MSRP.

Such a price bump would be proportional, logical, and probably wrong.

The sticky wicket (a word that took three tries to spell correctly) in this formula is the huge changes that we have seen in the currency market, namely that the dollar has been weakening against the euro for the past year, by close to a 10% margin.

Now, BMW’s pricing in the US is usually pretty close to the market expectations for euro to dollar conversions, with the USA getting a slight discount because…well, who knows.

But here is the kicker, with the way the currency exchange between the United States and Europe is headed (and where it currently sits), BMW Motorrad might have little choice but to raise the rates on the 2019 BMW S1000RR considerably.

Taking the European price tag of €19,550, and throwing it into a straight currency exchange, we get a possible price tag of $22,185 – that’s a 38% price increase over the outgoing model!

Now to be fair, this pricing in Europe is “in hand” which means taxes, fees, and registrations, where as in the USA the MSRP excludes this added costs.

But even still, just stabbing at more likely values, it is hard not to come up with a number at, or just over, $20,000 for the 2019 BMW S1000RR, if BMW plans on making any money in the US market.

BMW Motorrad might be able to lower costs with its ubiquitous packaging options, where the advertised base price is again much lower. The company’s 3asy financing scheme, with its infamous balloon payment, could also help ease the pricing pressure, since this is all pure cream to the bean counters at BMW.

That being said though, we firmly believe that the days of budget-price superbikes are done, and that $20,000 price tags on “base model” machines is going to be the new norm.

Quite frankly, we are surprised that BMW Motorrad doesn’t have a $40,000 trim level, like we have seen from Ducati. Maybe it is just a matter of time?

Until then, we will wait to see official pricing from BMW Motorrad USA, which should be out in the new year.