Dunno how we missed this, from Visordown:
According to reports from our foreign friends, BMW have already (with help from Rotax) developed three engines to power not only the funky tri-wheel concept to production, but a brace of large scooters, too. (…) Jean-Michel Cavret, director of the division motion of BMW France, said: “The president of the division BMW motion, Hendrik Von Kuenheim is convinced that we must make a scooter, therefore we are working on the project. We want to be open to new markets and it is for that reason that we produce the motor of the G450X for Kymco and the G650X to the Loncin Chinese factory.”
The translation appears sketchy in that last sentence, it was reported in March that Kymco would manufacture a 450cc motor for BMW, which sounds like the BMW/Rotax-engineered 450 mentioned in the story. Hopefully BMW is far too proud to rebadge any of the asian three-wheeled covered scooters already on the market.
Yes. More large “scooters” please. Please, no.
How about putting some of the engineering ingenuity to the task of building something new. Powerful, automatic, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing should not be pigeon holed to the maxi-‘scooter’ genre (which hits the mark at 3 of 4 of those at best). There is no reason why 3 wheelers should take any precedent over quadricycles. The only barrier is the NHTSA and if I were a quadricycle maker, I’d get together now and push while the Big 3 are in the dumps. Are you listening, Honda, BMW, Polaris, Kymco, BRP, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Toyota? (just a reminder that the last owns a stake in Yamaha)