'The future is wide open': BMW bosses on the challenge of electric and why it's not all over for combustion

As the world strives towards green transport, predicting the future propulsion of motorcycles is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge – and that’s true for huge brands like BMW, too.

Whilst some have stuck all their eggs firmly in the electric basket, others are choosing an entirely different path with Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Yamaha announcing a research partnership into the viability of hydrogen.

To find out where BMW fit into the picture, MCN sat down with the head of their motorcycle division, Dr Markus Schramm, alongside design chief, Edgar Heinrich. “The BMW Group position – and especially on motorcycles – is that we want technology open solutions,” said Dr Schramm.

“We are certainly planning for electric mobility. We have started, but we are also developing the ICE [internal combustion engine] story further. I think we will see serious e-motorbikes first before [synthetic] e-fuels,” he added.

“I’m convinced – and we are planning this – that in the near future we will launch the first proper [electric] bike. We start now in urban areas, so this year we will see another model for the urban area.”

Going on to confirm that this first “proper bike” would be a roadster design, Dr Schramm also believes synthetic fuels will play a key role. “E-fuels is a very important part of this, and I am personally very much convinced that political discussion will change during the next 10 years.

“We are very optimistic, but we are very pushy in terms of e-fuels because I am convinced that in 20 years there will be people requesting e-mobility bikes because they want it and it’s emotional, rather than by regulation.

“In the long-term, of around 30 years, I think there will be a significant share above 50% that’s electric mobility. But, at the same time, I’m convinced that combustion engines will survive.”

Alongside discussing BMW’s long-term plan, MCN quizzed designer Edgar Heinrich on the challenges that he and his team may face as we move away from a focus on traditional combustion.

“Electric motorbikes open up a new field for design, because if you look at existing bikes, they are mostly designed around the engines,” Heinrich said.

“The cool bikes or the iconic bikes are defined by the engine – like a V-twin, inline-four, flat boxer engine, or Ducati’s L-twin. If you abolish all the engines and you put in just a big black box [the electric motor] and all the brands have the same black box, what is the like icon of the bike?”

He continued: “The abolition of the engine is a big loss in the perception of motorbikes, but this is something we have to deal with.”

Heinrich and his team experimented with this back in June 2019 with the Vision DC Roadster naked concept, which used side-mounted coolers to mimic the cylinders of a traditional boxer engine.

“We didn’t try to fake a boxer engine, but literally put the hot components – the cooler the radiators – into the air stream,” he explained. “That’s basically what [Chief Designer] Max Friz did with the first boxer engined motorcycle. It’s the same logic.”

Despite the challenges, Heinrich remains excited for the future – likening the current blank canvas to the pioneering days of two wheels.

“If you look at bikes from the 1920s or 30s, the space was so wide for any kind of suspension, seats, valve timing, brakes, whatever. This all narrowed down to a few general concepts. The forks now are all the same, the brakes are the same, there’s four basic engine layouts, and three different layouts of frames,” he said.

“If you look at electrics, everything is wide open. Suddenly you can rearrange. It’s super interesting and, once in a while, the designers come up with cool ideas we have never thought before.”