TheBMW CE 04 electric scooteris now on the market, but the company’s electric two-wheeler plans don’t end there. The crew over atMotorcycle.comhave once again uncovered patent paperwork showing a full-on electric motorcycle under development at BMW’s skunk works department, and once again, this project is made to emulate the look of a classic boxer engine.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this idea. Some of you may recall BMW’s Vision DC Roadster, a concept bike BMW released almost three years ago in Munich. The Vision DC Roadster was an electric motorcycle with the battery/motor assembly mounted longitudinally across the frame, giving the machine the layout and somewhat the look of a classic internal combustion engine in a boxer layout (see an initial write-up on that concept bikehere).

Now, Motorcycle.com’s Dennis Chung writes that BMW has recently published a patent showing a new electric motorcycle design with an aim to once again preserve that classic look. This time around, BMW’s design doesn’t have the battery and motor in the space where the heads of a boxer engine would be; instead, there are a set of finned aluminum heat sinks. Clever, really—not only does this have the aesthetic that Beemer owners want, there’s even a functional reason behind it. It’s the same old “cylinders in the breeze” idea that’s worked for BMW for 100 years, updated for the 21st century.

The patent shows charging equipment and inverter stuffed into one of those heat-sink “heads,” and a liquid-cooling system for the battery and motor installed into the other “head.” You can see a few other details of the patent, and a few more drawings, at the MO storyhere.