BMW has already used its Shiftcam technology on twins and inline fours, but now a recently-unearthed set of patent drawings suggests the Germans may also be planning to use this tech on the company’s single-cylinder line.

Several outlets have published these drawings, but they probably originated with Ben Purvis, who ran them inCycle World—Purvis regularly digs this stuff up from skunk works projects around the world, once the designers file for patent paperwork.

Taking a peek at the drawing above, we see a cylinder head with BMW’s shiftgate system smack-dab in the middle. Just like the system on the twins and fours, this is designed to shift the intake cam from a less-aggressive to a more-aggressive profile as engine rpm picks up. In the larger, multi-cylinder engines from BMW, this has multiple effects. Most noticeably for the rider, it improves power across the rev range, as the engine is effectively tuned to a wider band of rpms, and thanks to modern ECU technology, the fuel injection can be matched to the engine’s needs.

The other important side effect of variable valve timing is a decrease in tailpipe emissions. The different cam profiles make for a cleaner burn, and that’s very important as we move towards increasingly restrictive emissions requirements not just for Europe, North America and Australia, but even for India, where these engines are made for BMW.

No word if TVS, BMW’s Indian partner, will also roll this technology into its own lineup, or when we might see these changes. Maybe it’ll never happen. However, it seems that these designs are going to become more and more common in the years leading up to the mid-2030s, which is when many countries say they plan to ban new internal combustion engine sales altogether.