BMW C evolution electric scooter production started

The BMW Motorrad factory in Berlin-Spandau started production of the new maxi e-scooter which marks the addition of another electric vehicle to BMW’s portfolio. Not that we can compare these two, but at the price of a two years old 3-Series car, we wonder how C evolution will perform on the market…

Folks over at BMW do not seem to have any issues with the pricing however – look, i3 runs for €45-50k, but sells like hot cakes. It can even cost more than €55k!

We’re not in charge to set the prices, though. There’s people responsible to do just that. And as long as there’s other people ready to pay, then we have a deal :). Good, let’s do something that we can – remind you the new electric scooter’s tech specs.

The C evolution is powered by a drivetrain swing arm with liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous motor via a toothed belt and ring gearing. The rated power output is 11 kW (15 hp), with a peak output of 35 kW (47 hp). Hey, that’s three times more power than what we have in our Rеnault Twizy :). This enables the C evolution to achieve a top speed of 120 km/h (75 mph, electronically limited) and gives it better acceleration than some maxi scooters powered by engines with displacements of 600 cc or more.

The C evolution’s battery is also bigger than the one in Twizy. We’re not engaging in some sort of a comparison here, it’s just we people do this all the time – compare things, sometimes even subcontiously.

The scooter’s battery is liquid cooled with a great (for a scooter) capacity of 8 kWh. BMW says this is good for range of roughly 100 km and charging takes 3h at 16A or 4h at 10A.

Interestingly, battery modules are the same as those in BMW i3’s battery. The difference is that C evolution has three modules of 12 cells each, packed in an aluminum housing.

Now on to the tech stuff:

• Power – 11 kW (max. 35 kW);
• Max. torque – 72 Nm;
• Top speed – 120 km/h;
• Accelleration 0-50 km/h – 2.7 sec.;
• Accelleration 0-100 km/h – 6.2 sec.;
• Battery capacity – 8 kWh;
• Range on a single charge – up to 100 km;
• Charging time – 3h at 16A, 4h at 10A;
• Large TFT color screen;
• LED daytime running lights.

So now you can realize how fast BMW i3 is – just a second slower than C evolution. Ain’t it fun?

And finally, the C evolution’s sales will start sometime in summer 2014. As of writing of this blog BMW Motorrad’s website doesn’t show any C evolution pricing, but we’ll let you know it’s about to start from €15,400 (found it in this great Austrian C evolution review).

Source: Electric Cars Report