BMW segways into micro-mobility with a personal mover concept for campus employees

personal movers are soon to invade the many worldwide campuses of the BMW automotive brand, but they’re not what you’d expect. the design is being finalized by an in house team. it certainly pays to have thousands of engineers and mechanics when faced with a design problem. the micro-mobility concept for BMW employees is to be available at sites worldwide. it will minimize the monotonous commutes around the factory. the concept will also be used for transporting objects that need to be carried back and forth for daily tasks. the project just goes to show how BMW is always thinking about mobility and how it is changing for all aspects of life — even the mobility that takes place outside of your car.

images courtesy BMW group

the corporate headquarters realized that employees at BMW group plants and logistics centres sometimes cover up to 12 kilometres per day on foot and sprung into action to make their work more fluid and enjoyable. BMW group has proposed BMW personal mover concept (BMW’s interpretation of the segway) as solution to navigating their sprawling campuses. but it’s not just clever thinking and a bit of tinkering required to change the protocol in the factory floors, ‘experts from the BMW group research and technology house in garching took up this challenge, together with the staff who run the bmw group’s central aftersales logistics network at the dingolfing location.’

after much planning and legal/safety talk, head of the operations central after sales logicistcs network richard kamissek sums up: ‘it had to be flexible, easy to manoeuvre, zippy, electric, extremely agile and tilt-proof – and, at the same time, suitable for carrying objects. the personal mover concept can do all of this – and is also fun to drive. we hope to start using it as soon as possible!’  the personal mover concept can recuperate similar to the BMW i3 when not accelerating. it feeds released braking energy back into the battery. by no means sluggish, the electric drive accelerates up to a maximum of 25 km/h. it’s fast and it is also fun. the installed cells can guarantee a range of about 20-30 kilometres.