The second serious attempt by BMW in this special market for electric scooters. After the C-Evo, now disappeared, BMW markets this original and different CE 04. It is more original, more special but technically simpler... and better in everything.
Regarding BMW and other brands, I have written it many times. And I have done it because, throughout all these years testing motorcycles, I have verified it: experience is a degree, especially in this world of ours. When a brand embarks on a new project, in a market it hasn't touched before, it can be complicated.
It is true that they usually get it right. No modern brand gets into these messes without capacity and guarantees to get out well, but the truth is that when these models evolve, the improvements are enormous. And if you are talking about the world of electric mobility, an environment that is practically in its infancy, no matter how many want to make us see that there were electric vehicles 100 years ago, these improvements are more than enormous.
How many firms can boast of having experience, with already surpassed models and some success, in this electric scooter thing? As they say out there, between one and none; or with less joking, the truth is that very few. One of them, without a doubt, is BMW. The C-Evo, in two versions, plus its experience with an already extensive range of cars, shows.
It shows even in his commercial baggage because it is not easy to sell a scooter that really "complies" like a 300cc gasoline for three times the price of these. In reality, it is easier to make a scooter that is not comparable to anything like the BMW CE 04, which is really eye-catching, and targets the public that crosses the big cities with the very expensive gasoline twins (BMW also knows this), so fashionable. and that barely leave the urban environment.
There, a very impressive, high-end electric scooter, with premium equipment that is even somewhat cheaper than many of those twins, can be a viable commercial option. By the way, and by the way, from 0 to 50 km/h, at the exits of the traffic lights, it accelerates more than almost all those…
This is in terms of the commercial experience of the brand with its previous model of electric scooter. But it is that technically things have also changed a lot. They have certainly learned. The BMW C-Evo had a chassis that at the same time was the battery box, with liquid cooling, on which the front part of the scooter, bodywork, and other necessary elements were bolted. This BMW CE 04 is much simpler in that, with a steel tube chassis and all the necessary elements arranged in a much simpler way, within that chassis.
It is a curious scooter, full of contradictions. Yes, its technique has been simplified to be more logical and efficient, while at the same time, a commercial approach has been sought that is different from anything that has been tried so far. But it has been covered with a bodywork that is anything but conventional: "before dead than simple", recalling the famous song by MarÃa Isabel.
It looks more like an X-Wing from Star Wars than a scooter. Ultimately, that's part of that new business vision, and I can assure you that it gets more "heads turned" around town than any gasoline scooter and even many big bikes, no matter how cool they look to you.
How is
I remember that the C-Evo called attention, in terms of its structure, precisely because of the opposite of this one: on the outside, it had a certain air of the C 600/650 that made it seem like it was an electric version of them. And no, the chassis of those two were made of steel tube, well made, but quite standard and the C-Evo used the battery drawer itself (very sophisticated, with liquid cooling and so on) as its central element. As I was once told, there was not a single body part from the C 600 that would fit on the C-Evo.
With the BMW CE 04, it is obvious that it has nothing to do with the brand's current gasoline scooters because any resemblance to a BMW C 400 is purely coincidental. But if the BMW C-Evo was almost revolutionary on the inside to resemble a scooter on the outside, the BMW CE 04 is just the opposite.
The chassis is a fairly standard steel tube frame, leaving a hole in the center for cargo space. Behind there is a single-sided swingarm on the left side of the bike, which leaves the rear lenticular rim very visible, with a certain retro style since it looks like a Citroën rim from the 50s.
A preload-adjustable shock absorber, with nut and locknut, serves as the suspension for this rear axle. Up front, we see a standard 35mm fork, with plenty of throws, on a very long bike since it measures 1,675mm between axles. To give you an idea, a BMW R 1250 GS measures 1,525 mm and a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy is 1,665 mm. The brakes consist of a double 265 mm front disc and a rear of the same size. The wheels are both 15″
The motor is a unit developed by the German brand itself, synchronous with water-cooled permanent magnets, produced in Berlin. It carries the transmission to the rear wheel by a toothed belt (you can see the final part) and the control electronics is also BMW, liquid-cooled. The battery, also proprietary and based like the engine on car technology, reaches 8.5 kWh, with 148 V, and is now air-cooled.
All these components sit very low on the bike, to get that low center of gravity feeling that you notice as soon as you lift it off the kickstand. It reaches nominal powers of 15 kW, which become 31 peaks, with an 11 kW version for A1 or B license, with 23 kW peak and a torque of 62 Nm programmed to give a maximum of 1,500 rpm.
With all this, a top speed of 120 km/h and a fairly significant acceleration of 2.6″ from 0 to 50 km/h are declared. The official autonomy is about 130 km according to the WMTC standard, but in this case, it is not far from reality, as we will see. It has regenerative braking with various options for operating maps (Road, Rain, and Eco, plus Dynamic as an option), each with different power delivery and retention. With the stock charger, from scratch, it takes about 4 hours and 20 minutes. There is an express one available as an option that reduces these times to 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Of course, the ABS is standard and it has an ASC traction control, much needed, due to the large amount of torque it sends to the rear wheel when you open the throttle hard from a standstill. The proximity key is not missing, all the lighting is LED and the panel uses a very large TFT screen that can be connected to the mobile, capable of receiving navigation orders from the telephone.
The automatic emergency call equipment is standard, as is the reverse gear and the compartment for the mobile phone, in the left glove box, with ventilation and lock when you close the motorcycle. Our BMW CE 04 has the Avantgarde package, with heating in the seat (of these there are several models to choose from) and in the grips, the central stand, electronic improvement with ABS Pro, DTC (traction control more advanced than the ASC), adaptive light and Dynamic mode.
Finally, under the seat... no, sorry, there's only air there... On the right side, with a button, you open the side hatch that gives access to the hole to store a helmet. It is quite square and a very large integral fits if you do not carry the charger.
How's it going
It brings a smile to your face when you go to test drive the BMW CE 04. You see what a "gadget" it is, its odd shapes, that seat that looks like an ironing board but looks so good on it, in this two-color option black and orange… You get on it, you lift it up and you see that everything is different from any other scooter, or at least almost.
The seat feels hard. It is not intended, of course, for travel. The scooter weighs 231 kg at stake, but the seat is low, at 780 mm. It arrives well and rises well. The side leg is faired and it is easily accessible, both to unfold it and to fold it. And once everything is ready, contact with the central button, under the handlebars, the start button in the usual position, with a brake engaged, open the gas and go out, in almost total silence, with that slight whistle of the electric motor.
The road mode is the most standard. In the acceleration levels are already spectacular (it is capable of triggering traction control on dry asphalt) and the regeneration or retention is very similar to that of a normal gasoline scooter, with which driving is very natural. The brakes also act with good touch and sufficient capacity.
And the suspensions have a pretty good compromise between hardness to allow control and softness in the bumps. Dynamic mode is somewhat harsh on throttle, and Eco mode is harsh on hold but smooth on throttle. In Rain, of course, all reactions are softened.
The DCT traction control that this unit has is very smooth to operate and important on a motorcycle like this. It gives a lot of confidence when opening the throttle, even with the scooter lying down because, beware, the chassis allows "joys". He is wearing a pair of Pirelli shoes that provide a very good grip, but keep in mind that you are sitting quite far from the front end and that conditions the feedback: it is a matter of confidence to enter the curves quickly, but he is very capable of doing so.
In the city surprises. You see it so long, so "long&low" that we would say of a custom, that it gives the feeling that you will not be able to get into the daily traffic jam with a minimum of agility. And the truth is that it is because, among other things, it turns well and the weight so low allows it to be moved with great ease, although sometimes you have to look behind it to see if you have completely passed. And of course, at traffic lights, it has no rival.
But one of the most important "crux" in an electric scooter is its real autonomy. Can I use it "for real" as a substitute for gasoline on a day-to-day basis? Well, I would say yes in almost all cases in which we use the scooter to go in and out of the city and run errands throughout the day.
We picked up the scooter at BMW Iberica, in the north of Madrid, we crossed the entire city through the center until we headed south, we returned to Madrid via Embajadores and returned home (south again). We did practically 80 kilometers, at normal rates (sometimes well above that normal "average") and there was 28% battery left, which indicated about 30 km of autonomy.
That means more than 100 km of autonomy on a single charge, a very interesting figure for a motorcycle for daily use. And by the way, all this is in the middle of a heat wave, which always drains the batteries first.
The best:
- Different and striking lines
It would improve with:
- Limited cargo space
- Price-performance ratio
- Hard seat
This is how we see it:
- On the road: 4
- In town: 4
- Passenger: 3
- Comfort: 3
- Equipment: 5
- Highway: 2
(From 1 to 5 points)
You have to pay more than €12,000 for BMW's second electric scooter, which is another indication of where electric technology is going since a C-Evo was more expensive and this one is better. It is also very striking, fun in every way, full of state-of-the-art technology that breathes it through its pores.
It goes very well and is comfortable enough for day-to-day, despite mounting a somewhat hard seat. But it is a real option to replace a gasoline motorcycle in this urban and "commuting" use, as the English say when entering and leaving the city.
And that's his best aspect. You have room to carry the passenger, who will have to hold on to you if you accelerate hard and in equipment scores very high; Granted, there's no adjustable screen (you don't need it at those speeds), but there is a whole collection of well-designed gadgets designed to make your life easier.
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