BMW I8: Farewell To The Plug-in Hybrid

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BMW I8: Farewell To The Plug-in Hybrid
BMW I8: Farewell To The Plug-in Hybrid

Video: BMW I8: Farewell To The Plug-in Hybrid

Video: BMW I8: Farewell To The Plug-in Hybrid
Video: НОВЫЕ гибридные BMW Plug-in Hybrid! Тест BMW i8, i3 на родине, в Мюнхене. Заметки Рулевого. день 1 2024, March
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The era of the BMW i8 is drawing to a close. The hybrid sports car from the Munich-based car manufacturer will soon no longer be built.

Time and again, BMW has managed to create sporty icons that have been inspiring the automotive world well beyond their time as commercially available series vehicles. These include sports cars such as the M1 or the Z8. Whether the hybrid sports car i8 also has what it takes to become an eternally fascinating classic remains to be seen in a few years. In any case, his career as a production model will end in April.

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In 2009 BMW announced the still futuristic-looking sports car with the Concept Vision Efficient Dynamics. With its unusual design and a 356 hp plug-in hybrid drive, the 2 + 2-seater caused a sensation, because with a sprint time of 4.4 seconds and consumption of 3.7 liters, it resolved the conflicting goals of driving fun and efficiency in supposedly amazing way. It was to become the flagship of the BMW i sub-brand, which was founded in 2010 and which, with electrified drive technology and regeneratively manufactured lightweight components made of carbon, should pave the way for the brand towards an ecologically more correct future.

Rolled off the line in Leipzig in 2014

This became the present in the summer of 2014, when the first i8, which were handcrafted in Leipzig, were handed over to customers in Munich. But although the hybrid sports car seemed like the right car at the right time to many, it was unable to unleash any euphoria.

For some it was not sporty enough as a sports car, for others it was not climate-friendly enough in practice as an eco-vehicle. Pure electric cars were better there. Thanks to the large battery, the i8 can drive over 50 kilometers purely electrically and thus emission-free, but with the three-cylinder as the main drive source, in practice seven liters of gasoline or more were usually burned per 100 kilometers. In addition, with a price of 126,000 euros, the i8 was an expensive model even by BMW standards and was not a car for the masses anyway.

Getting on in years

The drive technology may have seemed progressive at first, but in view of the dynamic developments in the field of e-mobility it seems almost out of date from today's perspective. Even the former carbon hype seems to have run out of steam again. In 2011, BMW secured 49 percent of the carbon specialist SGL and announced that it would exit the joint venture at the end of 2017. This change in strategy should also be one of the reasons for the end of the i8.

But above all, the i8 and i3 stand for an electric strategy that is now outdated even in the BMW Group. With its two i-models, the Munich-based company was initially avant-garde, but such single-purpose vehicles that are purely tailored to e-drive technology should no longer exist at BMW. Future Stromer will be based on platforms that are suitable for many different drive types and structures. With the help of these versatile architectures, the Bavarian carmaker intends to massively expand its range to 25 electrified models by 2023 alone.

20,000 units sold

Despite its high price, around 20,000 i8s have rolled off the assembly line in Leipzig over the past six years. At least the relatively small production number could be interpreted as an indicator that the gullwing might become a cult BMW in the more distant future. 254 of the 507, only 399 of the M1 and around 5,000 of the Z8 were built. There was one thing they were definitely not: a best seller. And yet today they are among the major milestones in the sporting BMW history.

The question still remains whether the i8 will get a successor? In 2019, BMW at least gave an outlook on a potential candidate with the Vision M Next study. The possibly trend-setting fun wedge can easily leave the i8 behind with a 600 hp mix of four-cylinder gasoline engines and two electric motors and 100 kilometers of electric range. In the future, ecology and sportiness will probably be able to be harmonized far more impressively than with the i8. The hybrid athlete, who was soon to be discontinued, was a pioneer there. (SP-X)

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