During the summer of 2019, at the #NEXTGen event in Munich, BMW unwrapped the futuristic Vision DC Roadster concept. The bike was shown as a preview of a possible future when BMW would drop the use of its old boxer engine, swapping it with a battery and electric motor.
At the time, BMW did not say anything about the DC Roadster, but the bikemaker has recently filled a Patent, which hints that a production version is being considered and might be under development. This assumption is based on the fact that in the list of desired trademarks, nine of them include DC as relating to motorcycles.
Although securing the trademark for certain ideas in this sector doesn’t always translates into action, and it doesn’t necessarily mean something is going to arrive. However, in this case, chances are there that BMW is indeed working on an electric bike.
The BMW trademark filings do not reveal too much about the electric bike, and ultimately it is just a concept, which might be far away from an actual street legal version. Still, we can see that the bike has a vertically mounted battery, some cooling ribs, integrated ventilator, and obviously, a motor underneath the battery. The bike comes with a tubular structure that includes the seat at a place usually occupied by the fuel tank. In terms of power, unfortunately no actual performance figures for the electric powertrain were released at the time of the concept’s presentation.
BMW has tonnes of experience and has made tremendous progress in the EV space with its cars such as the BMW i3 and the sports car i8. But in the motorcycle sector, that isn’t the case. Although, as mentioned earlier, no major two-wheeler brand has cracked the EV code yet. Infact there isn’t much to look when you search for an electric, performance oriented, luxury as well as premium sports bike. The only renowned name that has made an attempt to invade the EV space, is Harley-Davidson with the Livewire, but it comes with a price tag over $30,000, which makes it impractical for now.