There have been a few bikes which came in ‘ahead of their time’, and the BMW C1 was arguably one of them. The 125/200cc scooter with a roof and a roll cage appeared at the end of the 1990s, promising an option for car drivers to beat traffic while staying dry and safe inside a solid steel structure. Two seatbelts kept the rider inside, and a helmet was not required when riding in the EU (though this convenience was scuppered in the UK when the DfT insisted that riders wore one). The C1 was a commercial failure at the time, though it’s attracted a cult following in recent years amongst fans of practical urban mobility machines.
Now, BMW has shown off a prototype C1 equivalent at the IAA Mobility 2025 motor show in Munich. The new Vision CE features an electric powertrain and a similar crash-proof, protective cage setup to its predecessor. It’s only a concept at the moment, and there’s little in the way of concrete specs, but what it does have, apparently, is a built-in “balancing function” which lets it stay upright automatically at a standstill. There’s no word on how this works, but BMW has been working on self-riding bikes for at least a decade now, and Honda also showcased a self-balancing two-wheeler back in 2017, so the technology has been in development for a while.
The Vision CE could be a very interesting option for future urban transport – assuming it ever makes full production. It will, though, have to do a lot better than BMW’s current electric scooters in the UK, whose sales remain moribund.