Stagnation means decline. The men at BMW know this and that’s why they founded the BMW I division. A division that aims for the development of cars for the future. The first two cars can be found on the streets. The BMW i3 is available for a while already but the i8 is still relatively new. We took this car for a ride. It’s the first hybrid sports car we drive and the first meters already promise a great day!
We get a fully charged BMW i8 when we get at the BMW importer in Rijswijk, the Netherlands. With a full battery you should be able to drive up to 25 kilometers completely electric. In completely electric mode we head out and head for the city center of The Hague. When you don’t like a lot of attention the i8 definitely isn’t a car for you. We see a lot of surprising looks and some people even think that an UFO is passing by. We can understand that feeling because the colour named Protonic Blue in combination with the sharp futuristic lines is something you won’t see every day. We really love this car and we’re happy to see that BMW dared to put this car on the market. Almost identical to the Vision concept BMW Vision EfficientDynamics which was introduced at the IAA in Frankfurt in 2009. The lines are a bit improved but the identity of the i8 is still the same. As said, people are surprised when this car passes by and especially when you open the doors of this car. People don’t know what their eyes are seeing and immediately start to ask a lot of questions. “Is this that new electric car?”, “Is this a BMW?!”, “What an amazing car!”. The best thing about the car is the fact that everybody loves it. A lot of people compliment the looks of the car. We got dozens of reactions when we drove the i8 and unfortunately we had to return this car after two amazing days.
Amazing is the perfect description of this car. The electric driving is something which is still quite new but the i8 made us love it. The immense amount of torque isn’t the best thing about electric driving but speeding without making a sound is incredibly fun to do. It becomes a sport to drive as far as you can before the battery runs out.
The electric driving is fun but it gets really fun when you combine the conventional technology with the electric technology. 362 hp and 570 Nm of torque are available and you will reach illegal speeds in no-time. This is great! You get the feeling that you’re driving a real sports car. At higher speeds, the accleration isn’t that fast anymore, but still fast enough. The three cylinder engine in the i8 produces 234 hp and 320 Nm of torque thanks to the use of a turbo. When you’re driving and your batteries are empty the car automatically charges the batteries. When you’re driving at the highway you will soon be able to drive another 15 electrical kilometers. You can also charge the car at a charging station.
Driving the i8 does require some adjustments in your driving. The driving itself isn’t really different, this is just like every car. Despite its weight of 1460 kilograms, the car has a great handling in corners. It’s very hard to compare this car with any other car in the world. We often see that people compare the i8 with a Porsche Carrera or something similar but there are just too many differences to compare these cars. The only thing that requires some adjustment in your driving is the amount of torque that’s immediately available when you’re accelerating.
We can be short about the interior if the i8. It’s typical BMW. Sleek and ergonomic just like we’re used to from BMW. All buttons can be found where you expect them to be found. The iDrive button can be found at its normal place and makes you use the multimedia system in all ease. Next to the gear lever we find the starting button and the button to turn on the electric drive.
The best thing about the i8 is its price. Of course the car is expensive but it’s definitely worth the money. The amount of attention you get is just priceless. This copy only had two extra options, a integrated multifunctional remote control for 264 Euros and the colour Protonic Blue which costs 356 Euros. When you choose these two options, you will only have to pay 150.000 Euros, including taxes in the Netherlands.