BMW_Simple_Concept
BMW stelde in haar museum te Munich de BMW Simple Concept voor. Sustainable and Innovative Mobility Product for Low Energy consumption.

De ‘wagen’ kan een top van 200 km/u bereiken en verbruikt daarbij minder dan 2 liter brandstof per 100 km. Bovendien is de wagen bijzonder smal en kan hij heen en weer bewegen, waardoor hij goed om de bochten heen zou moeten kunnen. Dit concept moet de bescherming van een wagen en de mobiliteit van een moto in één model bundelen.

De wagen weegt 450 kg en stoot 50 gram CO2 uit per kilometer. Ondanks zijn kleine afmetingen moet er toch voldoende ruimte zijn om een doorsnee persoon te huisvesten. De motor levert 48 pk, niet bijzonder veel. Door het geringe gewicht slaagt de motor er weliswaar in om na 10 seconden 100 km/u te rijden.

BMW Simple Concept

BMW Simple Concept

BMW Simple Concept

Munich. In the course of its history, BMW has repeatedly provided impulses for the further development of personal mobility through innovative vehicle and drive concepts. Last year’s special exhibition ‘Concept Vehicles’ at the BMW Museum presented a selection of these unusual concepts. Now two more vehicles from the recent past are about to be added to the exhibition. Known as SIMPLE and CLEVER, this brace of concepts goes on show at the Museum on 9th October, bearing eloquent witness to BMW’s innovative strength.

SIMPLE – light in weight, low on energy

Simple combines features and advantages from both automobiles and motorcycles. The concept owes its passenger cell to the car, providing protection from wind and weather as well as shielding the driver from exterior noise and offering occupants a high degree of safety in the event of an accident. The motorcycle inspired the slim design of the Simple (at just 110 centimetres wide) and its configuration for two people sitting one behind the other. Plus it boasts the dynamic driving style typical of a two-wheeler, allowing you to lean right into corners as desired. The designation “simple” is an acronym of the project name “A sustainable and innovative mobility product for low energy consumption”.

The BMW designers initially planned a small vehicle with low weight and minimal aerodynamic drag properties. Following a concept phase of several months, the pooled requirements and ideas gave rise in 2005 to a vehicle based on tilting technology. In contrast to other vehicle concepts in which only the passenger cell tilts during cornering, here all the driver has to do is determine a change in direction for the appropriate tilt to follow automatically. The stand-out feature of the Simple concept is that it activates the hydraulics only in exceptional situations, for example if the vehicle threatens to become unstable during extremely slow driving, when righting the vehicle during standstill or in extreme situations such as drifting. Otherwise, Simple rides like a motorcycle and, beyond natural gravity and gyroscopic forces, requires no energy whatsoever to lean into a corner. The passenger also benefits from this tilting technology as he feels no transverse forces and, particularly during rapid changes of direction, need not compensate for any lateral movements.

All that is needed to power this lightweight vehicle with a kerb weight of approx. 450 kg is a 36 kW combustion engine. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is estimated at under ten seconds and the vehicle has an excellent drag coefficient of 0.18. Using the electric motor and the combustion engine, the Simple would need just 6 kWh (equivalent to 0.7 litres of petrol) or two litres over 100 km.