Giving Chase : BMW Wants to Break Kawasaki’s and Harley’s Hold on the Police Market
Police throughout the West have ridden Kawasaki motorcycles for so long that the brand has become synonymous with law enforcement.
But alarms are sounding at Irvine-based Kawasaki Motors Corp. USA these days as the company, which sells half the police motorcycles used in the country each year, gears up to battle a formidable contender for its police business.
Germany’s BMW has been quietly pitching its high-tech, high-cost motorcycle to police departments nationwide, hoping to dethrone Kawasaki and gain some valuable visibility for its civilian two-wheelers.
There were telling defections this summer as the Oregon State Police and the Medford, Ore., municipal police dumped Kawasaki for BMW, even though the German motorcycle costs twice as much. But the big showdown will come in about 18 months, when the nation’s largest buyer of police motorcycles, the California Highway Patrol, issues the final findings of a five-year comparison of BMW and Kawasaki machines.
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More than halfway through the test, which is being closely followed by a number of police agencies, Kawasaki’s now-16-year-old law enforcement model is not faring well.
The agency’s interim study report, issued this summer, rates the German bike much higher than the Kawasaki in every category--from routine maintenance to rider comfort.
“The Kawasaki is fast, but the new BMWs are faster,” said Lt. Jerry Palmer, a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast who commands the Oregon State Police motorcycle unit. “And the BMWs have anti-lock brake systems that nobody else has. There’s no comparison when you have to make a panic stop.” CHP riders also wax enthusiastic about the BMW’s brakes.
The police market isn’t big: Of the more than 330,000 motorcycles expected to be sold in the U.S. this year, fewer than 2,500 will be bought by police agencies. And only about 1,000 of the country’s 14,000 law enforcement agencies even use motorcycles.
Kawasaki and Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. have shared that market equally for a decade. The Japanese company, which assembles its police motorcycles in a 600-employee plant in Lincoln, Neb., dominates the West, and Harley controls the police market to the east.
Small as it is, though, the police market is important. Law enforcement sales provide visibility and a tacit product endorsement by some of the hardest-riding motorcycle users in the country. Both those factors translate into significant consumer sales.
Although BMW began as a motorcycle maker and sells tens of thousands of them worldwide, its U.S. sales are minuscule. To most consumers in America, a BMW has four wheels, not two.
Its New Jersey-based distributor is pushing hard to persuade agencies to test the bikes, and the company views the CHP’s comparison as key to its success. The patrol’s 400-motorcycle fleet is the biggest in the nation, and it replaces about 150 bikes a year.
“If the CHP rides BMWs, then many others will follow that lead. They are a bell cow for a lot of departments,” said Pat Raymond, director of BMW’s police motorcycle operations.
BMW’s challenge raises intriguing questions: Will Kawasaki and Harley respond by introducing their own high-tech police bikes? Which of the two companies will suffer if BMW succeeds?
And how can BMW hope to sell its $16,000 R1100 police motorcycle when government agencies almost always must buy from the lowest bidder that can meet basic equipment requirements? Competing Harley-Davidsons sell for about $14,000, and Kaw asaki’s KZ1000 police model is now priced at about $7,500.
So far, this much is clear: Kawasaki is the target, and the company is preparing to fight by altering its strategy, dividing the police market into two pieces.
Kawasaki executives bristle at the suggestion that their present police bike is anything less than it should be. But Bob Moffit, Kawasaki’s motorcycle marketing vice president, also acknowledges that the company couldn’t introduce it today because the bike, last updated in 1982, no longer would meet Kawasaki’s own design standards.
Ironically, Kawasaki entered the U.S. market in 1975 as a champion of high-tech, high-performance motorcycles, tackling a then-sleepy Harley-Davidson for a share of the police market to give itself immediate credibility with American motorcycle enthusiasts. The strategy paid off, and Kawasaki, the last of Japan’s motorcycle makers to set up shop in the U.S., soon made its product the bike of choice at leading police agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the CHP.
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The name recognition it garnered as motorists saw police officers from Los Angeles to Atlanta astride high-revving Kawasakis was a big factor in the company’s growth from a nonentity into the nation’s fourth-largest motorcycle seller, Moffit said.
But the switch to BMWs by the two Oregon departments, as well as interim results of several of the CHP comparison tests now underway are causing concern at Kawasaki.
The company has decided it can best compete by dividing the police market into separate categories, pursuit and municipal, and producing motorcycles for each.
The pursuit market, typified by the CHP, needs a high-power motorcycle with fierce acceleration and precision handling, capable of running all day on the freeway, with enough reserve muscle to hit speeds of 110 mph or more.
High-speed motorcycle pursuits are banned by most municipal departments for safety reasons, so a high-powered bike like Kawasaki’s KZ1000 isn’t needed. What the city cops want, says John Hoover, Kawasaki’s U.S. motorcycle design chief, is a bike for traffic control and parade escort duty.
To serve that market, Kawasaki next year will introduce its first new police motorcycle in two decades. The cruiser-style bike will have big tires, a fat, teardrop-shaped gas tank, flared fenders and lots of chrome. Its 1,500-cc V-twin engine will be strong enough to chase down speeders, but won’t match the Kawasaki KZ1000 or the BMW police bike in top speed or acceleration.
The new motorcycle will have liquid cooling, though, to prevent overheating. It will also have a heavy-duty electrical system to support radar and other electronic devices used by traffic police.
Harley, which prides itself on making only gradual changes to its bikes, won’t comment on product development, but it is rumored to be developing a police bike with a bigger engine.
Even without a new model, though, Harley appears immune to a serious challenge by BMW.
Many agencies are finding that Harley’s year-old police bike, based on its popular Road King touring model, has great reliability, which brings operating costs into line with those of the Kawasaki.
Equally important, Harley has a hard core of uniformed fans every bit as loyal to the brand as the wildest of outlaw bikers. And that’s a passion Kawasaki has never been able to ignite.
“They’re American motorcycles,” says Jorge Jestes, a traffic sergeant with the Sacramento Police Department, which is studying the costs of switching from Kawasakis to Harleys. “And when you are in a formation with about 20 of those babies behind you,” Jestes says, “it just sure sounds good.”
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Kawasaki does have badge-wearing fans, but they are decidedly less enthusiastic.
“They get good mileage, they’re not too expensive to operate, and there’s no competition at the price we pay,” says Cmdr. Nathan Thibodeaux, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s motor transport division. “I don’t see our use changing as long as Kawasaki remains the least expensive and meets our transportation needs.”
But Mike Steer, technical, testing and training officer for the Edmonds, Wash., police motorcycle unit, said Kawasakis “don’t stand up so well anymore” when lifetime costs are compared.
So far, BMW is having no problem demonstrating superiority in operating costs over both industry leaders. Among other things, BMWs can go 6,000 miles between regular servicing, twice as far as Kawasakis or Harleys. And BMW provides police with a three-year warranty, compared with one year for the others.
In the recently released interim report on its comparison study, the CHP said the cost gap between the BMW K750s and the Kawasakis that it bought in 1994 is closing quickly as the miles accrue. At 40,000 miles, the CHP’s total costs, including recovery of estimated resale value, averaged 1.7 cents a mile for the Kawasaki and 1.9 cents for the BMW.
However, BMW threw comparison testers into a spin last year by switching models--it discontinued the K750 in favor of one based on its larger, more powerful and more expensive R1100 touring model.
CHP officials won’t say whether or how they may adjust their study, but other police agencies figure the test will at least establish how well BMW’s technology works in the field and how well the company supports its products and honors its warranty.
“A bigger, better BMW won’t make the test less valid,” said Freddie McDaniel, a motorcycle patrolman with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, which is running its own BMW test.
So far, the CHP’s test shows that Kawasakis require far more maintenance and are consistently outclassed by the BMWs in everything from performance and reliability to ride comfort and public reaction.
The BMW bikes “can’t be beat,” said Santa Ana-based CHP officer Brian Habegger, who spends 10 hours a day on his motorcycle and has logged almost 200,000 miles on Harleys, Kawasakis and now BMWs in his CHP career.
In addition to its safety features and mechanical advances, the BMW also has touches such as electrically heated handgrips and an electronically adjustable wind screen--items police say have proved invaluable for officers who often ride in wet, windy or cold weather.
Kawasaki and Harley “just haven’t kept up with technology,” growls Lt. Ron Norris, operations support officer for the Medford, Ore., Police Department.
Price, not performance, is BMW’s biggest hurdle, and the company is campaigning to overcome the handicap by arguing that there’s a better way to buy than the old low-bid system. Instead of looking merely at the initial purchase price, BMW urges agencies to consider the total cost of owning and operating the machines--including the money to be recovered in the resale market when the bikes’ police lives are over.
BMW argues that its motorcycle is no more expensive to own than a Harley or a Kawasaki when its longevity, low maintenance and high resale value are taken into consideration.
The company, as does Harley-Davidson, also offers buyback and time-payment plans that can greatly reduce the overall cost to police.
“It’s been slow going to get agencies to adopt the life-cycle approach,” BMW’s Raymond says. “But we find that if a department that’s locked into a low-bid system really wants a BMW, or a Harley-Davidson, instead of a Kawasaki, they find ways to get around it.”
Newport Beach traffic division Capt. Mike Blitch, whose department is the first in Southern California to buy BMW’s new R1100 police model, said the department was attracted by the anti-lock system and the life-cycle costs.
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BMW’s way may be eased in California by a pair of measures--Senate bills 937 and 1132--that would allow state agencies to use life-cycle information in buying most goods and services. The bills are expected to be considered early next year.
Meanwhile, Kawasaki officials consider a future with a new and aggressive rival and hope their reading of the tea leaves is correct.
Kawasaki has technologically advanced models, Moffit said, “but we can provide them on a police bike only if our customers stand up en masse and demand it. And so far, that hasn’t happened.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
The Bikes
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BMW Harley-Davidson R1100 RT-P FLHP Price $15,990 $14,000 Engine 2-cylinder boxer 2-cylinder V-twin Displacement 1085 cc 1340 cc Horsepower 90 72 Top speed (mph) 120 103 Quarter-mile 97 mph/13.28 sec. 88 mph/14.53 sec. accel. Cooling system Liquid, fan-driven Air Brakes Anti-lock disc Disc Service intervals 6,000 miles 3,000 miles Est. resale value $6,500 $12,000-$15,000
Kawasaki KZ1000 Price $7,500 Engine 4-cylinder in-line Displacement 998 cc Horsepower 92 Top speed (mph) 107 Quarter-mile 96 mph/13.11 sec. accel. Cooling system Air Brakes Disc Service intervals 3,000 miles Est. resale value $800-1,500
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Noteworthy Features
BMW: Built in Germany; very fast; anti-lock brakes; electrically adjustable windshield; heated hand grips; European-style riding position requires rider to lean forward slightly; no foot boards, rider must place feet on side-mounted pegs; liquid-cooled engine permits motorcycle to idle or run at low speeds for long periods without overheating.
Harley: American-built; V-twin engine and distinct Harley image and sound; cruiser styling; lifetime belt drive; pneumatically adjustable seat.
Kawasaki: Assembled in Nebraska; very fast; small turning radius; full cowel for wind protection; uses chain-and-sprocket drive system.
Sources: BMW, Harley-Davidson Inc., Kawasaki Motors Corp USA; California Highway Patrol; Edmonds, Wash., Police Department
Motorcycle Market
Harley-Davidson and Honda will continue to dominate sales in the U.S. The 1997 forecast:
TYPE OF MOTORCYCLE
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Company Street-only Dual purpose Dirt-only Total Police Harley-Davidson 95,195 0 0 95,195 1,250 Honda 49,734 1,886 43,051 94,671 Suzuki 31,522 3,499 12,561 47,582 Kawasaki 26,730 2,981 14,753 44,464 1,250 Yamaha 17,769 2,499 19,614 39,882 BMW 4,164 1,453 0 5,617 30 KTM 0 0 3,432 3,432 Triumph 2,871 152 0 3,023 Others 4,515 230 389 5,134 Total 232,500 12,700 93,800 339,000 2,530
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Sources: D. J. Brown Composite Index
