Back in the summer of 2007, BMW and the University of Bath put their combined heads together and designed a vehicle called the Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transportation, or Clever for short. Using just 3 wheels and an engine that was designed to run on compressed natural gas, the Clever concept emitted just half the carbon dioxide of normal economy cars.
BMW may revisit this design for a future production model under its Project i program, which has the goal of finding new ways to create sustainable models for our transportation needs. The Clever would be just one vehicle in a range consisting of multiple two-, three- and four-wheeled vehicles.
As much as we'd love to see a completely electric line from the German automaker, we may be waiting a while. iMotor in the U.K. quotes an unnamed spokesperson for BMW as saying:
We are committed to producing a super economical or zero emission vehicle or range of vehicles. However, it's going to be at least five years until we have production models one the road.
In the meantime, BMW may be forced to fall back on its motorcycle division to locate a suitable set of powerplants for Project i.
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