BMW is turning the CE 04 electric scooter from a concept vehicle into a reality

BMW Motorrad debuted its concept CE 04 electric scooter back in November 2020 but at the time, it wasn’t much more than a mild tease. Now the automaker has announced that it’s turning the CE 04 from a concept vehicle to reality, ready for city streets.

BMW’s beaming new bike

We’ve said before that fully realised vehicles only ever seem to wear the scaffolding of their conceptual counterparts, but the for-sale model of the CE 04 is strikingly similar to the concept model. Minus a few nips and tucks. Still looks like something straight out of Akira though, and we’re calling that a selling point.

Now, unlike the WMC250EV BMW’s bike won’t be breaking any land speed records, but it can certainly hold its own as a city slicker. With a maximum output of 31kW, it can take you from 0 to 50km/h in under three seconds (if you’re flooring it), and it tops out at 120km/h for main road travel. The bike also has a battery cell capacity of 60.6Ah, which gives you a firm 130km on one full charge. 

Charging on the standard charger will set you back around 4 and a half hours, at 2.4kW. But the lithium-ion battery is geared for fast charging too if you’re keen to shill out for the quick-charger. This gets you a full charge in 1 hour and 40 minutes, with up to a 6.9kW output.

The futuristic bike has all the trimmings you’d expect, such as Automatic Stability Control (ASC) and Dynamic Traction Control (DTC), environmental driving modes, anti-lock braking, and a 10.25-inch TFT colour screen for navigation. 

Bottom-line: this bike is cool, and perfect for urban motoring, as BMW’s press release states. We’re not sure about local availability or pricing just yet, but The Verge reports that in the states the CE 04 will set you back $12,000, which is roughly R172,000.