SCOOTER’S A BEAUTY BUT HARD ON BOOTY
BY
GEOFF HILL
Well heavens to Murgatroyd, these electric scooters are like London buses – you wait for ages for one, then two come along at the same time.
You can’t hear them sneak up on you, you see. As those of you who have been paying attention will remember, a couple of weeks ago it was the Chinese firm NIU’s MQi GT EVO, a splendid little machine which was only four grand, and which I immediately decided by a vote of one to zero with no abstentions was the best electric scooter I’ve ridden so far.
This week it’s a bigger beast altogether, the German-made BMW CE 04 which has 42bhp compared to the NIU’s 7bhp, but costs £11,700, or an even more eye-watering £13,930 if you buy all the optional extras.
It certainly looks splendidly futuristic, although the seat looks suspiciously like a plank – a suspicion confirmed when I sat on it and found that it felt like a plank as well.
Mmm, time would tell if it got more comfortable, but in the meantime, I distracted myself by admiring the excellent mirrors and the fabulous 10.25in screen.
The battery was showing 100% and the range 77 miles. A switch on the right bar toggles between the various riding modes – Eco, Rain, Road and in this case the optional Dynamic. Acceleration is brisk enough in the lower modes, and whippy enough in Dynamic to get it from 0-30mph in 2.6 seconds, which is quick enough to beat most cars away from the lights in urban duelling.
Handling – with the weight down low and 15in wheels – is superb, allowing you to fling it through bends with graceful precision made even more satisfying by the silence and seamless power delivery.
By now I’d ridden 30 miles in an hour of motorway and A and B roads, and the range was down to 37 miles – so BMW’s claim of an 80-mile range is probably about right for urban commuting rather than spirited dashing about in Dynamic mode.
At the end of that hour, the seat hadn’t got any more comfortable, though, so whoever designed it has no conception of the shape of the human bottom.
And then there’s the price. The nearest equivalent BMW petrol scooter, the popular 34bhp C 400 X, is only £6,250, or less than half the price of a fullyspecced CE 04. So it’s hard to see who’ll buy this apart from early adopters inside the M25 with buns of steel.