BMW Going Electric
There are quite a few electric motorcycles out or in the works these days, so it’s no surprise to see BMW mixing it up. The company debuted the Vision DC Roadster a while back but since then there hasn’t been much-electrified noise from the Bavarians.
Now, the E-Power Roadster is here. It’s an electric motorcycle prototype. The company invited some European journalists to come and check out the bike. It’s a bit of a parts bin motorcycle with an innovative electric powertrain. According to RideApart, the motorcycle has the front end of an S 1000 R and the back end of an R 1200 RS. The bike is a prototype, so BMW is focused on the powertrain and not the rest of the motorcycle at this point. I would assume the finished product will be more handsome.
Anyway, the bike can do a 0 to 60 mph run in 2.9 seconds. That’s wicked fast considering the bike weighs 639 pounds. The bike can recharge three miles of range for every minute it’s on the fast charger. That means it takes 30 minutes to get to 90 percent of its battery capacity.
The electric powertrain components are borrowed from the BMW automotive side of the business. The bike uses a 13 kWh battery and an electric motor from the long-wheelbase, China-only 7-Series. The bike can do 125 to 185 miles per charge and the electric motor is good for 136 hp and 147 lb-ft of torque.
The range isn’t quite there yet, but it’s cool to see BMW working towards something here. I look forward to the future.