No Electric Motorcycles In BMW’s Future?
BMW Motorrad MD’s Stephan Schaller is not playing around when it comes to the company’s electric future.
In 2017 he launched the electric Concept Link at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa and clarified then that vehicles that ‘move in the city’ would be the company’s focus in the future, which he means, of course, scooters such as the C-Evolution or the Concept Link.
(Image: Hydro World)
In an interview with Italian publisher Motociclismo, he spoke with even more clarity when discussing placing batteries into larger, motorcycle-shaped frames.
“Building an electric motorcycle isn’t an impossible, technical challenge, and you can solve every problem,” said Schaller. “But can you imagine supplying electricity in the desert?“I am convinced that 2018 will see a significant increase in the sales of these [electric] models. And I’m speaking of scooters and not of motorcycles”.
BMW are one of the only ‘major’ manufacturers currently with an actual electrically-powered two-wheeler within their catalogue with the C-Evolution. And if the interview with the Italian website is anything to go by, it looks as if that could well be joined by the production version of the Concept Link by 2021,
“It will arrive within three years, and it will be very close to the prototype shown on Lake Como by style, accessories and technical equipment”, he says.
Although BMW has not been shy in revealing electrified versions of their existing models, even a battery-powered S1000RR on stage at an event in 2015 that was later confirmed to be the RR concept, for now it looks like electric scooters are where the immediate future lie.