INTERVIEW
BMW MOTORRAD CEO STEPHAN SCHALLER
P62
range—a high performance two-wheel-
er. Our C-evolution scooter has 11kW
continuous output, peaking at a maxi-
mum 35kW, but the millions of electric
small vehicles which you were talking
about in China are all below 1kW, so
this is not the class we are entering.
With our scooters we have a real
performance bike and the day will
come when legislation could change
where particularly in the big cities of
China because of pollution they will
give electric two wheelers the right to
use the freeways. Until then, I don't
see sales picking up so much beyond
the rich Chinese for whom it's a toy,
which was the case in Germany a while
ago.
But won't those rich Chinese also
want an exclusive high-end electric
two-wheeler to commute on?
Not only the Chinese want that. If
I could get a GS today with electric
drive I think I would prefer it to the
combustion version. Which vehicle is
better suited for electric power than a
two-wheeler, where you have maximum
torque from the very beginning, and
can have a very fine throttle sensitivity?
We only have to wait for the batteries
to develop further, therefore the logical
first step is the C-evolution delivering
urban mobility, because you don't go
more than 100km [62 miles] in cities.
But would not building the C-evo-
lution—which seems likely to be the
Already for the
month of January,
BMW has sold
over 6,000 of its
maxi-scooters.
