Could MINI Be Making an Electric Motorbike?

DimON · May 5

MINI has shown off electric two-wheel concepts before and even sells an e-bike in Europe today. And then there’s even the Cooper E-Bike from Cooper bikes, run by our friend Charlie Cooper. But what if MINI produced a full electric motorbike or scooter? There seems to be a growing set of rumors that point to just that.

Now the head of MINI is speaking about the idea. Recently head of MINI Stefanie Wurst posted on LinkedIn about how much she enjoyed riding on BMW’s new CE 02; “A while back I posted about how much I enjoyed test driving the new all-electric MINI Countryman. For an afternoon recently I swapped four wheels for two and jumped on the fully electric new BMW Motorrad CE 02 for a thrilling test ride. BIG LOVE to BMW Motorrad for trusting me with their newest bike, and to Sonja Hengstler and Oliver Heilmer for riding alongside me. You can tell by the smile on my face how much I loved it!“

038_bmw-ce-02-highline-v.jpg?resize=798% — BMW CE 02, International Media Launch BMW CE 02, Lissabon, Portugal

Autoexpress caught up with Stefanie Wurst at the Beijing Motorshow about her experience on the scooter and she had more to say; “I think this is interesting because it’s urban mobility – BMW is producing so much when it comes to mobility. If we were to do something I would look into the family first and I think this is something I find interesting. If I have interest in our markets, this is something I would consider.”

Interesting the head of MINI Design, Oliver Heilmer already has his team working on the concept; “I actually gave the team the task, ‘Let’s do some bikes just in order to understand whether it works’. We tried little motorbikes as far as we can. It’s not our expertise and they’re doing something where they say, ‘does this work?’ And they say, ‘I don’t know. It looks good.’ So you can create something that looks like a MINI.”

044_bmw-ce-02-highline-v.jpg?resize=798% — BMW CE 02, International Media Launch BMW CE 02, Lissabon, Portugal

MINI has the perfect template to follow in the futuristic and recently released electric BMW CE 02. The all-electric CE 02 has 15bhp, and is roughly equivalent to a 125cc petrol-powered motorbike.

We went hands-on recently with the CE 02 and found its simplistic yet futuristic design to be unique and incredibly interesting. It accelerates to 31 mph (50 kph) in 3 seconds and has a stop speed of 60 mph. Range is roughly 60 miles and the batteries can be recharged from 20-80% in under two hours. The downside of this gorgeous retro futuristic motorbike is its price $7,599 in the US.

If MINI used the CE-02 as a template we’d expect a lower price and (naturally) a MINI look to it. But would you be interested in a MINI motorbike? Let us know in the comments below.