Simple and Clever Concepts Enter BMW Museum

German carmaker BMW has announced today that two new vehicles will be added to the ‘Concept Vehicles’ special exhibition, namely Simple and Clever. While the former combines features and advantages from both automobiles and motorcycles, the latter is a result of a research project aimed at producing a low-emission, practical city vehicle.

The Simple concept vehicle takes its slim design (110 cm wide) from a motorcycle, while 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, just like an automobile.

Just like a two-wheeler, Simple allows you to lean into corners as desired. According to BMW, the designation “simple” is an acronym of the project name “A sustainable and innovative mobility product for low energy consumption”.

Simple is powered by a 36 kW combustion engine. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is estimated at under ten seconds, while the drag coefficient is 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 liters over 100 km.

On the other hand, Clever is the acronym for “Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport” project, and it refers to sitting one behind the other in a three-wheeled vehicle driven by a low-emission natural gas engine.

The concept is powered by a single-cylinder engine with 230 cc displacement and output of 12.5 kW, powered by natural gas from two compressed-gas cylinders. So far, the driver and passenger sit in a crash-optimized aluminium space frame with computer-controlled tilting during cornering.