BMW Patent Reveals Plans for Small-Displacement Scooter

BMW currently has three scooters on the market: the electric C evolution and the Twin-cylinder C600 Sport and the C650GT, all of which can be described as “maxi-scooters”, relatively large scoots that deliver motorcycle-sized power with twist-and-go simplicity. Newly-published patent documents suggest more scooters may be on the way from Bavaria, this time with smaller displacements.

Filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization, the patent describes an arrangement for damping the vibrations from a Single-cylinder engine. The patent doesn’t describe the engine in any detail, except to say it was a Single mounted to the swingarm, but that’s enough to distinguish it from any known engine currently in BMW’s lineup.

The frame depicted in the patent illustrations also looks new, not matching any of BMW’s current models. The rear shock runs vertically from the rear of the swingarm to the tail of the frame whereas the C600 and C650GT use a horizontally-arranged shock and the C evolution’s rear shock angles forward toward the seat.

The patent does not indicate the engine displacement, but it does describe how BMW approaches the problem differently from solutions used on the 330cc Piaggio Beverly (BV350), the 153cc Honda PCX and the 299cc Kymco Downtown 300i. This would suggest BMW’s considering an engine from 150 to 300cc, while the size of the wheels in the patent diagram suggest the engine will be in the larger end of that range. This engine would still be the smallest engine in BMW’s two-wheeled lineup, possibly even smaller than the engine being developed for BMW’s upcoming small-displacement motorcycle.

A patent filing doesn’t indicate how soon it could make its way into a production model – if at all – but the level of detail in the patent illustrations suggest this new BMW scooter is fairly far along on its development cycle.

[Source: WIPO]