Official statement from BMW NA, received Wednesday, 20 September 2023:
“BMW of North America is dedicated to providing vehicles to our customers that meet their expectations. To ensure that our vehicles are of the highest industry standards, BMW performs ongoing testing and evaluation.
Following a recent quality analysis, BMW is pursuing measures to further evaluate the material used in a component of its motorcycle evaporative system, which may not have been produced to material specifications.
As a result, BMW of North America is issuing a temporary, voluntary stop sale for all new and pre-owned BMW motorcycle models in dealer inventory, except for the CE 04.
This temporary stop sale is not safety related and BMW owners may continue to ride their motorcycles as normal.”
NOTE: The above is BMW’s official statement. The below is my opinion, and mine alone, and is not the position of any institution or entity.
There has been a lot of discussion—much of it marginally informed at best—on the internet regarding this stop sale order. I want to draw attention to the part where BMW says it is “not safety related” and we can all keep right on riding our motorcycles … the ones we’ve already bought, anyway.
My guess (and that’s all it is) here is that BMW discovered a problem that affects multiple generations of motorcycles, and right now they themselves are not 100% sure exactly which bikes are affected. They know for sure it’s their current inventory, thus the stop sale order. This way they can figure out how to fix the problem with the evap system and get that fix out to dealers to implement on bikes currently in their inventories, paving the way for sales to resume. No doubt what would follow is a voluntary recall to fix the problem on bikes that were sold before they issued the stop sale order.
The United States and Canada have similar emissions regulations, so my guess (and again, that’s all it is) is whatever the problem with the evap system is, BMW wants to remain compliant with current regulations. It’s likely the quickest thing for them to do was stop sales.
I’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available. For now, the statement above is the best info we have, and I got it directly from BMW NA.