A company best known for creating bicycles is dipping its toes in the electric car business with a new concept called the SIN. No, it’s not named after the immoral act; “SIN” is actually a hat tip to the “contemporary urban sprawl of Singapore.” On that note, the Biomega SIN is a simplified electric vehicle that takes a shape similar to a lot of mobility concepts we’ve seen in recent years. A production model is planned for the future, but for now, it’s only a concept that just made its debut at the China International Import Expo.

Exterior Styling

There’s nothing extraordinary about the design of the Biomega SIN. That’s not a slight towards Biomega because that’s what the company intended to do in the first place. The SIN is part of a crop of new electric car concepts that abide by the simplicity of no-frills transportation using electric drive systems that can take you to places where you need to go without so much as a fuss.

It doesn’t have a traditional hood, and except for the wheel arches and what looks like side mirrors, the entire surface of the concept is smooth. It’s dominated by what looks like glass, too. The windshield, for example, runs the entire length of the vehicle. There’s another one in the driver’s footwell and the doors, well, they’re not really doors in the traditional sense of the word. The SIN comes with sliding glass doors if you can believe that. The concept also sits on wheels that look like oversized buttons. They’re wrapped in thin tires, which suggests that the concept isn’t meant to be driven in any other fashion than straight out transportation.

On the surface, the concept looks like a simpler version of Renault’s EZ-GO Autonomous Concept that the French automaker revealed earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. But there’s more to the Sin’s construction than its quirky facade. The chassis, for example, is made out of modular carbon fiber. The lightweight material helps keep the concept’s kerb weight down to just 950 kilos, making it lighter than a Toyota Yaris.The aluminum crossbeams in the body structure should help improve its safety, but at the end of the day, the SIN is still a light car.

For better or worse, Biomega doesn’t appear to be inclined to make a production version that’s identical to this concept. A production model is planned, but it should look different from the concept that's sitting in Shanghai right now. Doors, for example, will be included in the production version, though perhaps they’ll also be of the see-through variety.

Interior Design

The interior of the Biomega SIN is as no-frills as it can get. There are four seats that look just like the seat I’m occupying right now. There’s a small rectangular steering wheel up front with a small tablet located right smack in the middle of the minimalist dashboard. The back-to-basics cabin is indicative of Biomega’s plans for the model. The company indicated that the SIN has the “potential to be adapted for a wide range of consumer opportunities, including the freedom of business models such as ride sharing or leasing.”

If that’s the case, that should give prospective owners the opportunity to replace the concept’s stock characteristics and give the EV a bit more personality. I personally wouldn’t be opposed if someone turned the SIN’s interior into something akin to the cabin of the Volkswagen Sedric Concept, a similar urban mobility concept that at least has rear-facing jump seats and a couch seat.

Drivetrain And Performance

The Biomega SIN is, first and foremost, an electric car. It has no traditional gas-powered engine in its makeup. Instead, it can go around and about courtesy of a 20kWh battery in the floor of the concept. The battery sends power to four motors hidden in the wheel hubs. That’s not the case when you get it off the line because its 0-to-62-mph acceleration time is listed at a snail-like 13.2 seconds. You take what you can get out of the SIN, apparently.

Its 100-mile range isn’t particularly impressive, either, but it’s probably enough for a back-to-basics urban mobility ride that has no intentions of turning into a speed demon anytime soon. Those who end up procuring the SIN can also take advantage of the modular battery swapping system located on the floor of the concept. Biomega says that swapping batteries can be done “on the move,” though I suspect the company means that it can be done during a mid-journey stop and not necessarily when the vehicle is actually moving. Biomega's battery-swapping system could be similar to what Gogoro already has with its electric scooters. Food for thought on that one.

Final Thoughts

The Biomega SIN isn’t the kind of concept that’s going to get anyone over-the-top excited, but it is an interesting take on what could be the future of electric urban mobility. We’ve seen similar offerings from traditional automakers like Volkswagen, Renault, and even Mercedes-Benz. The presentations were all different, but the overarching theme of urban mobility was present in all of those concepts.

Biomes has something here that it can work on. But as first impressions go, there’s some promise here. Biomega executives have come out and said that the company plans to create a production model that it plans to launch sometime between 2021 and 2023, priced at about €20,000, or roughly around $23,000 based on current exchange rates. It has a lot of work to do to get there, but it’s working on it, which is the most important thing. Head designer Guillermo Calla even told Wired that the prototype’s battery module system will evolve into a three-battery module concept.

It remains to be seen if Biomega can reach its destination, but at the very least, it’s working hard to get there.