Moto blog

Kymco to Supply BMW with i3 Electric Car Range Extender and New 400cc Scooter Engine

The automotive world has been buzzing of late about BMW‘s upcoming i3 electric car having an optional range extending gas-powered motorcycle engine. As our sister site Autoguide.com reports, the i3 will be available with an optional two-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine to power a generator which can recharge the electric motor and extend the vehicle’s range to 250 miles compared to a range of 60-90 miles relying just on the battery. It turns out that two-cylinder motorcycle engine will actually be provided to BMW by Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco.

2010 Kymco Quannon 150 Review - Motorcycle.com

Small-displacement motorcycles used to be very popular in North America. There was a time when bikes under 250cc were considered real motorcycles and not just entry-level trainers. But that was when a big bike was about 650cc and a 900cc Harley Sportster epitomized high performance.

2018 Kymco Xciting 400i Review - First Ride

My fling with a thing Credit: Photos by Michael Spain-Smith We were snuggled into a conference room in the upscale Aloft hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, when PR man Peter Jones kicked off Kymco’s 2018 new-product launch by telling us that scooters in the U.S. market are “such a small thing, they’re not even really a thing… scooters and soccer, they’re just not a part of our culture.” But the lack of scooter culture has made Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco itself a thing. After staying doggedly in the American scooter market for the better part of two decades, Kymco has a coast-to-coast dealer network, a good reputation for reliability and value, and is basically the only purveyor of value-priced, high-performance maxi-scooters.