For an eye-opening case study of “innovative vehicle concepts” and how they typically fare on the market, look no further than BMW’s C1. Launched in 2000 as the Bavarian response to Daimler’s Smart, the scooter with a wide seat and a roof was touted as the ideal city vehicle. With a top speed of less [...]
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For an eye-opening case study of “innovative vehicle concepts” and how they typically fare on the market, look no further than BMW’s C1. Launched in 2000 as the Bavarian response to Daimler’s Smart, the scooter with a wide seat and a roof was touted as the ideal city vehicle. With a top speed of less than 70 mph, it’s no wonder that BMW started communicating 0–50-kph times aggressively.
If you look at the C1, you won’t be surprised that sales never took off. But driving one is even less fun than looking at it, given the C1’s lofty center of gravity and tendency to tip over. Proud Italian coachbuilder Bertone was given the task to build the C1, and with just about 30,000 units sold—a fraction of original projections—BMW later had Bertone build 2000 units of a special-edition Mini as a token of compensation. (The Italians managed to lose money even on that project, an insider tells me.)
It took a European safety project called eSum to resurrect the C1, which keeps the “conspicuous roll-over bar” (press text), and the driver’s seat complete with a (red) safety belt. In fact, BMW has gone to lengths in the past years to enhance motorcycle safety: over one million BMW motorcycles have been built with anti-lock brakes; BMW bikes offer tire-pressure monitoring, anti-slip, and traction control systems.
The new concept gains an electric motor, lithium-ion batteries, and the somewhat unimaginative C1-E designation. It’s too bad that all of this comes in such an ungainly package, even though the press text has this to offer: “Visually, the concept vehicle expresses brand-typical sheer driving pleasure.” Will it ever be built? No current plans, says BMW.
But the company is proud to point out that the C1 is “the only motorized single-track vehicle to be exempt from mandatory helmet-wearing in almost all European countries.”
We’ll take the helmet, thanks.
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