This month at BMW’s Motorrad Innovation Day 2011 held in Munich, Germany a new suburban commuter scooter was launched. With space becoming increasingly scarce in the major cities, company’s trying to lessen their eco-footprint and and traffic density is growing continuously this is a concept that is being met with a lot of excitement. All these factors coalesce in increasing demands in terms of private transportation. The concept vehicle BMW E-Scooter with electric drive provides an innovative look at changing urban mobility needs.
While the currently available, purely electrically-powered scooters have been almost exclusively used inside towns and cities to date due to their performance and range, which makes them suitable for short distances only, the concept vehicle BMW E-Scooter offers a much broader spectrum of use.
BMW Motorrad has The E-Scooter concept was built to show that even suburban commuters can rely on electric, two-wheeled transport options. With more than a 60 mile range and a recharge time of around three hours, it’s aimed at those who live outside city centers and are tired of dealing with parking and traffic gridlock. The scooter is specifically tuned to provide maximum power between 0 and 37 mph, which BMW says is the ideal range where suburban commuters usually drive. It can even safely seat two without losing power. But if you do loose power you can simply charged at regular household power sockets as found in Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan, so no special charging station is required
The bike’s specs are possible thanks to an innovative design that uses the aluminum battery casing in lieu of a main frame. BMW says the rear frame, swing arm and steering head are all mounted to the aluminum battery case. While the electric motor and electronics are liquid cooled, the battery itself is air cooled in order to save space.
Also instead of a hub motor with direct drive or planetary gearbox, the electric motor is mounted behind the battery and connected via toothed belt to the belt pulley, which is mounted coaxially on the swinging fork pivot with drive pinion. A roller chain connects to the rear wheel. This setup allows for regenerative braking which BMW says can increase range between 10 and 20 percent.
The company had been hard at work drawing up plans for an electric scooter. BMW is calling it a “development study,” which means we may soon see E-Scooters silently buzzing around. Please stay in touch with MAX BMW Motorcycles of North Hampton, NH and Max BMW Motorcycles of Brunswick, NY because we look forward to being the first to bring you this eco-friendly transportation option. Penske BWM Motorcycle proud to support the green movement.
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