BMW i8
Everything you need to know.........
BMW's "sportscar
of the future" is about to begin customer deliveries. The i8 is
a plug-in hybrid with a short fully electric range, 112 miles per gallon hybrid
efficiency and a very feisty, 357 horsepower, all wheel drive sports mode that
fires it to 60 mph in four and a half seconds. It's a very clever piece of
engineering and a beautiful piece of futurist auto art – a stepping stone
between the oil age and the electric future. Take a closer look in our huge
photo gallery and video overview.
According to ‘MyTravelCost’
Saudis can still buy petrol for less than 80 US cents per gallon. Americans
likewise enjoy some of the cheapest in the Western world at US$3.62 per liter.
Step into Europe and you can more or less instantly double that figure, and
it’s well on the way to triple that in Germany and Norway.
So, however much
Americans might be feeling the effects of rising gas prices, Europeans have
been hit harder and for longer. And since the upward trend is unlikely to
reverse itself, Americans can look to the European auto industry as a herald of
what’s on the way.
And what’s on the way
is not necessarily bleak. While efficiency is a big deal, and fuel consumption
figures can sell cars, that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of fun to be had on
the road.
Take the i8, BMW’s new
technology flagship, which is very close to making its first customer
deliveries. This is a 112 miles per gallon sportscar with genuine 4.5-second
0-60 mph times.
How it gets there is
fascinating – a carbon fiber body shell keeps the total weight down to 3285 lbs
(1490 kg), using a manufacturing process which BMW claims will allow it to make
CF as strong and light as its competitors, but for less money.
Under the hood, a
watermelon-sized electric motor drives the two front wheels to the tune of 131
horsepower, sucking electricity from a modest 7.1 kWh battery pack that runs
down the middle of the car. On battery power alone, you can travel about 23
miles (37km) on a charge – enough for a short commute, or to enable you to
pootle around town and spend virtually nothing on fuel. (Mind you, can you
really be pootling on fully electric drive? Perhaps the language is going to
have to change with the times.)
Of course, this is a
sports car, so that’s not all she wrote. At the rear of the car is a
turbocharged 1.5 liter, three cylinder engine, based on the one in the Mini
Cooper. Unlike in the Cooper, it produces 231 horsepower, making it one of the
most powerful engines around per cubic centimeter of displacement.
Around town, the
petrol motor also kicks in to extend the range of the car when you’re running
the battery low – so you spend the first 15-odd miles driving on (more or less)
free electricity, but then you’ve got a highly efficient engine to fall back on
if you need to go further.


Electric efficiency,
petrol’s range and convenience, plus the performance of a genuine sports car.
Oh, and it’s got laser headlights and scissor doors.
BMW claims the i8 is
the car of the future – but in reality I think it’s the cutting edge car of
today. We’re living in a strange transitional age where fully electric vehicles
promise insane performance, usable range and convenient charging times, but battery
technology isn’t quite there yet. The i8 hybrid is an astonishing technical
achievement and an extremely cool car; it straddles the gap between the
gasoline age and the electric future with a sense of real fun and excitement.
It integrates its technologies in a way that is both visible and seamless to
the driver.
But at the end of the
day, it’s a very clever solution to a problem that simply shouldn’t exist in 10
or 20 years.

No comments:
Post a Comment