THE BMW i8 is a stunner. It turns heads. It stops traffic. It makes people stare. With its futuristic looks it is no wallflower. It is a supercar with hypercar tech. And it could be yours.
Outside:
The exterior is designed to be as aerodynamic as possible. The kidney grilles are almost completely closed off, the bonnet is low slung and the underneath is sealed. There are air ducts between the lights and deck lid. In fact the car is designed for air to run through it as well as over it, hence the air chutes and lack of vents. However, having said that, the aluminum bonnet has a central vent reminiscent of a Corvette.
From the front, the car looks like a bird of prey. With the u-shaped daytime running lights framing the narrow adaptive laser headlights it looks stealthy.
Around the back, the brake lights illuminate depending on brake pressure – the top lights illuminate with light pressure and the bottom lights comes on when more pressure is applied. Speaking of which, the i8 has regenerative braking at first, followed by regular friction braking.
The BMW i8 glides along on 20-inch BMW i Turbine-spokes.
And then there are those doors. The doors that you have always wanted on your dream car, the seriously cool, but terribly impractical scissor doors, that open up like wings making the car look like it is ready to swoop down on its prey. A button opens the doors, in the future there are no handles.
Inside:
The cabin is very beautiful, but if you are used to BMW cars it is familiar too. It is constructed of high grade materials and eco-friendly treated leather. The two-door four-seat coupe offers plenty roomy up front, but the backseats are really only suitable for child seats. Speaking of which, there are Isofix anchor points, to which you can fix your (optional) BMW branded child seats. So it is the most obvious choice of car if you have a young family, right?
There is also a 154-litre boot, which is larger than that of the Porsche 911, so you can do your weekly shop in this futuristic family run-around.
There are also plenty of standard features like heated seats, enhanced Bluetooth, Driving Assistant, Park Distance Control, BMW eDrive technology, navigation system, and BMW Service Pack.
Under the hood:
This is the first plug-in hybrid vehicle manufactured by the BMW Group. The combination of an electric motor and a powerful petrol engine provides the foundation for the BMW i8. The 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol unit is mated to a synchronous electric motor with plug-in lithium ion battery pack.
It is an all-wheel drive car with a six-speed automatic transmission driving power to the rear wheels and a two-speed transmission driving power to the front wheels when it is in electric mode. All four wheels can thus be powered simultaneously by two engines, and – depending on the driving situation – this utilises the advantages of front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
The BMW i8 has a top speed of 250km/h and goes 0 to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds. It has a combined fuel economy figure of 2.1 litres/100km and falls into tax band A1, which means it is just €170 to tax a year.
This dream car is in demand though as just this week rugby star Simon Zebo was seen test driving this very model. He obviously has very good taste in cars. But don’t let him drive it away, get yourself down to Kearys BMW Eastgate and take the car for a test drive. Just €163,500 gets you a lot of car and a lot of admiring glances.
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