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BMW launched its second electrical scooter earlier this 12 months within the CE 04, and has made clear it plans to provide extra electrical two-wheelers within the close to future. Oliver Zipse, chairman of the board of administration for BMW AG, lately went so far as to say BMW Motorrad will introduce a brand new electrical two-wheeler each 18 to 24 months, with the following mannequin coming in 2023.
While the preliminary fashions can be scooters or “urban mobility vehicles,” BMW is anticipated to finally add electrical bikes to its lineup. The firm has already registered a number of logos for the names DC 01 via DC 09 to be used with bikes, with the expectation they are going to be electrical.
And now, due to a lately printed patent utility, we’ve got proof that BMW is engaged on an electrical bike that borrows a key component of its heritage: a Boxer engine.
We’ve already seen one instance of an electrical BMW Boxer when it revealed the Vision DC Roadster idea (pictured at prime). Presented as a design train, the idea wasn’t meant to change into a manufacturing mannequin however moderately to discover how BMW may produce an electrical bike that stayed true to the model’s custom.
The idea had a big battery that made up the majority of the chassis with two cooling parts protruding from both aspect, giving it the identical basic form of a BMW Boxer engine. Instead of two opposed engine cylinders, the Vision DC Roadster had the aspect parts housing cooling ribs and followers. The protruding parts had been even movable, designed to increase barely when the motor is began.
While the idea was not meant for manufacturing, the concept of getting a battery and its cooling parts forming the form of a Boxer engine remained with BMW, as revealed by the brand new patent utility.
The patent describes a central unit housing with two protruding cooling parts that type a form resembling a Boxer engine. Unlike the Vision DC Roadster, these parts are mounted warmth sinks made from aluminum and coated in cooling fins, resembling an air-cooled Boxer engine’s cylinders.
A frontal view of the bike depicts a form just like BMW’s Boxer-engined fashions.
One of the “cylinders” would home elements just like the inverter and the charging electronics. The different would comprise components of an inner liquid-cooling system for the battery and motor. With this association, the 2 protruding parts can be cooled by the airflow of the bike in movement, the identical method a Boxer engine’s cylinder are cooled.
A big portion of the patent describes the dimensions and positioning of the 2 “cylinders”. The general width of every “cylinder” (BOkay within the Fig 2) is about 40 to 50% the width of the width of the central physique (BG). Altogether, this physique kinds about 75% of the utmost width of the bike as measured by its handlebars (BM in Fig. 1 above).
Fig. 2 depicts a view from the entrance of the bike, displaying simply the central physique and the 2 protruding “cylinders”.
The protruding parts would every be a couple of third the peak of the primary physique, and positioned at about the identical top {that a} Boxer’s cylinders can be. This would place them in an identical place in entrance of a rider’s legs, and at a top that would supply sufficient floor clearance for a good lean angle.
If the patent ends in a manufacturing mannequin (which itself is not any certain factor), BMW would have an electrical bike that pays homage to its previous and its signature Boxer engine.
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