A render of what the BMW electric bike may look likeBMW Motorrad

BMW gets serious about electrics with 11 new patents

We’re using a bit of lateral thinking here, but with 11 new electric-based trademark registrations – it doesn’t take much to work out that BMW is getting ready to get into the electric bike market in a big way

Most of the BMW documents filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office are tagged DC. That suggests that we could get to see a production version of the Vision DC Roadster concept which was shown last year. But why are there nine separate trademarks? Does that mean we’re going to see nine unique electric motorcycles built around the same platform? Probably not. But chances are we’ll see more than one.

The numbers might refer to different styles of bike – street, touring or adventure – or they might be markers of battery size and performance. It could also be that BMW’s planning to use the ‘DC’ name for a few years, and so it’s making sure it can create multiple generations without hitting trademark problems.

At this stage, there’s been no official confirmation from the factory – but with the ever increasing proclivity for electric machines, it’s not much of a stretch to expect some battery-powered bikes from the Bavarian factory in the not too distant future.

BMW