A good rule of thumb when attending an auto show is that the more radical looking a concept car is, the less likely it is to ever make it to production. Virtually every major brand is guilty of producing pieces of rolling sculpture that end up doing little more than introducing a couple of new design cues that end up on more mainstream models. When we first saw BMW’s Vision EfficientDynamics concept at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, it seemed to fall squarely into this category. Nevertheless, five years later something very much like that concept emerged as the first-ever i8.
The i8 is one of the first two products spawned from BMW’s Project i, an internal think tank launched in 2007 to rethink 21st century transportation with an eye toward sustainability. The first concrete example of the group’s efforts was the 2008 MINI E program. A fleet of more than 600 battery-powered MINIs were built in cooperation with AC Propulsion (the same California company whose tzero concept inspired the Tesla Roadster) and then put into the hands of regular consumers in California, the northeast U.S. and Europe.
2015 bmw i8
The goal was to better understand how consumers actually use their vehicles on a daily basis when they have to deal with plugging them in. After a phase 2 test program that began in 2011 with the 1 Series-based ActiveE, the electric drive technology was eventually incorporated into the production i3 in 2014.
As good and admirable as the i3 is in many respects, BMW is also a brand known by the tag-line “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” While most of the cars BMW sells outside of North America are powered by small, often diesel-fueled engines, performance has for decades been a key component of the brand DNA. Thus BMW built the Vision EfficientDynamics concept to explore how the technologies being developed for the i3 MegaCity car could be integrated into a high-performance sports car.
2009 BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept
Like the i3, the sports car featured a carbon-fiber composite structure, a lithium ion battery that could be plugged in to charge and electric drive. However, at that point it diverges significantly. The original concept featured two electric motors, one at the front axle and second at the rear where it was mated with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbodiesel engine and an automatic transmission. By the time the concept became a production car, the rear motor was deleted and the diesel was replaced with a gasoline three-cylinder of the same displacement. The result is what is known as a through-the-road hybrid since the electric and internal combustion powerplants are connected only through the road unlike a Toyota style hybrid where the output is blended through a set of gears.
The 129-horsepower electric motor drives the i8’s front wheels through a two-speed transmission while the 1.5-liter turbo-triple at the rear generates 228-hp for a combined output of 357-hp. While that might seem low by modern supercar standards or even the 575-hp of the new hybrid Acura NSX, this is actually a surprisingly light car at just 3,455-pounds. The 7.1-kWh lithium battery sits in the center tunnel of the carbon-fiber composite structure while aluminum sub-frames at each end support the propulsion system and suspension.
BMW i8 powertrain
While the production i8 was certainly toned down from the even wilder concept, this remains one of the most unique cars you’ll see on the road today and it retains much of the essence of the original. When I rolled into a cars and coffee gathering on Saturday morning, everyone immediately ignored the red Lamborghini Gallardo spyder parked in front of me to check out what I was driving. The relatively long doors are hinged at the A-pillars and swing up in a semi-gull-wing fashion so that they take up surprisingly little space.
One design feature missing from the U.S. market version of the i8 is the amazing laser headlights that were on the concept and that are available in Europe. Unfortunately, American safety regulations don’t yet allow these brighter and more adaptable lighting systems here (nor are matrix LED systems) so we have to make do with more basic LED headlamps.
2015 bmw i8
The construction means that the i8 has somewhat high and wide sills with seats that sit low in the cabin. Getting in is relatively easy compared to some cars I’ve driven over the years (yes I’m looking at you Lotus Exige and Tesla Roadster!). Just step in with one foot, sit on the sill and slide across into the seat. Getting out is a bit less graceful but again a lot easier than anything derived from an Elise. This is a 2+2 with a pair of back seats but they really aren’t any more useful than those in a Porsche 911 and are strictly for children.
The rear seats are strictly for kids
The driver’s environment is well laid out with a central information display and a fully electronic instrument cluster straight ahead. This is augmented by a color heads up display to projects speeds and navigational instructions so you don’t have to look away. Most newer vehicles with navigation will display local speed limit information on the screen that is stored within the map database.
While this can definitely be useful when driving in unfamiliar areas, it is static data that may not entirely reflect the current situation. The i8 is the first car that I’ve driven that uses the forward facing camera to read road signs. I came to this realization when I entered a construction zone where the limit dropped from 70 to 60 mph and the indicator in the HUD immediately reflected this as I passed the speed limit sign. This is just the first stage of what cameras and other sensors will be doing on autonomous vehicles in the future.
The thickness and slope of the A-pillars on the i8 make left-hand turns problematic
The camera is also used for forward collision warning while radar sensors in the rear corners provided blindspot alerts but otherwise this car was relatively free of advanced driver assists. This is after all a driving machine, meant to be piloted by a human, not a computer. Speaking of blindspots, while the i8 generally has pretty good visibility to the front and rear, there was one significant problem area. The A-pillars are quite thick and sweep back at a pretty severe angle. In combination with a comparatively large outside mirror, this made for a huge blindspot when looking to the right before crossing over to make left-hand turns.
Once started, i8 has a decidedly different sound profile from the typical mid-engine exotic sports car. It remains essentially silent. The default drive mode is hybrid with a heavy bias to electric operation at lower speeds when the battery has juice. There is also an electric-only mode for cruising around town silently. Tapping the shift lever left engages sport mode where the engine runs all the time. In normal mode the engine comes on automatically based on power demand.
2015 BMW i8
Cruising on the highway, the i8 uses the engine and preserves the battery state of charge for lower speed driving where it makes most sense. On a full charge, the 7.1-kWh battery will provide about 15-17 miles of emissions free driving. At part throttle, the engine remains relatively quiet, but squeeze the accelerator hard and the i8 emits a healthy growl fully in keeping with its performance oriented DNA. I was actually somewhat surprised at how loud it got given how quiet the i8 is most of the time. Like many hybrids, the i8 uses an active noise control system that cancels out some objectionable frequencies while amplifying others. According to my contacts at BMW, the i8 doesn’t generate any synthetic sounds like the current-generation M5, it simply amplifies what the engine produces naturally. Having driven both Ford’s EcoBoost three cylinder and this engine, I can say that the growl emitted by modern triples is music to my ears.
Click here to compare the i8 to some of its competitors
One of the benefits of having a carbon fiber structure is that it is immensely strong and rigid. That means the suspension pickup points don’t move relative to each other. As a result, the spring and damper rates can be made a bit softer for better ride comfort without sacrificing handling. While the i8 won’t be mistaken for a Rolls-Royce Phantom, it handles the often uneven pavement around here with aplomb and it feels solid as a rock with no discernable squeaks, rattles or flex. Combined with the relative quiet from the powertrain while cruising, this would actually make a better road trip machine than most cars of its ilk.
2015 BMW i8
The fact that this is a through-the-road hybrid without a direct blending of output from the two power sources, means that there is an occasional disconnect. Every once in awhile a part throttle launch would trigger jerk from somewhere in the powertrain. It wasn’t immediately apparent if it was the two-speed gearbox tied to the front electric motor shifting or the engine at the back restarting and trying to quickly blend in with the motor. I’m inclined to think it was the latter. Either way, it didn’t happen frequently enough to be a problem and it’s certainly something I could live with for the enjoyment I got from the rest of this car.
The EPA rates the i8 at 28 mpg combined when running on gasoline and 76 MPGe in purely electric mode. After a week of driving this road-going spaceship, I averaged 39 mpg overall with use of both gasoline and electricity. For a car that sprints to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and looks this, that’s a mighty impressive number.
Another impressive number is the price tag. The 2015 model I drove has been in the press fleet for a while and carried a sticker price of $137,450 including delivery. For 2016, BMW raised the base price to $140,700. While not affordable to the vast majority of people including myself, it’s quite a bit cheaper than most of the cars that people might be cross-shopping like the Acura NSX or Audi R8. On the other hand, anyone spending this kind of money for a sports car probably doesn’t even care much about price. Given that, the unique design and technical properties of the i8 might be what tip the balance even if it may not ultimately be as quick as the others. If I were shopping in this market, I’d definitely give it a serious look.
Click here for full specifications of the BMW i8
