BMW is no stranger to electric car design, having created the all-electric BMW i3 about a month ago. Still designers are constantly striving to improve their products and BMW is no different in this regard. Revealing a more luxurious and sporty BMW i8 at an estimated one hundred and ten thousand dollars per vehicle. Making the BMW i8 a full-fledged luxury vehicle, both in design and price tag. The question on most people’s minds? How does it perform?
Under The Hood
Unlike BMW’s previous attempt with the BMW i3, the BMW i8 will come packing an internal combustion engine (ICE) and listing itself as a fully-fledged hybrid and not solely electric. The engine in question will be a 1.5 liter three cylinder engine packing two hundred and twenty three horsepower. Alongside the ICE engine will be a one hundred and seventy horsepower electric motor. Collectively these engines should be sufficiently able to power the vehicle to a top speed of one hundred and fifty five miles per hour. Its zero to sixty time will be quite good for a hybrid vehicle, coming in at under five seconds.
Does the Market Want it?
For some these numbers are shocking for a hybrid vehicle, and for others it’s indicative of what they were predicting years back. Regardless of which side of the debate you were on the current products clearly represent a steady evolution of hybrid and electric technologies. Equally important to note is the clear change in design language. With this iteration of hybrid vehicle BMW has gone with a sportier, exotic look that would typically be found in gas guzzling super cars. This signals a departure from past tradition in which car companies were designing hybrid vehicles that appealed to typical family values.
Constantly marketing things such as gas savings, comfortable seating, and advanced infotainment systems has become stale. The market has become saturated with family sedans promising all of those things and it needed to be spiced up. Clearly BMW sees value in creating a super hybrid segment in the automotive sector and it’s a sentiment shared by many others within the industry. Up and coming automakers like Tesla Motors are vying fiercely to be the top name in an increasingly competitive field. The question comes down to whether or not BMW’s attempt is enough to sway would be buyers into taking the plunge. Its technological specifications are impressive when compared to tame hybrid vehicles yet at this point in time it doesn’t hold a candle to Tesla Motors Model S luxury hybrid. Still brand recognition can be much more persuasive than actually performance giving BMW a slight head up in expected sales. Yet those sales are expected to be miniscule as hybrid vehicles with price ranges upwards of one hundred thousand dollars are not an often sought after commodity.
Conclusion
If BMW can keep pushing costs down while ramping up the technological features within its hybrid and electric vehicles it one day stands a chance at converting many prospective car buyers. Yet for that to happen, the rate at which breakthroughs in battery technology occur would have to dramatically speed up. Eventually governments the world over will begin seriously investing in electric vehicles and electric motors. For now you might as well just get used to filling up at the pump and falling victim to the prices of crude oil every single day.
Today’s guest post was written by Eduardo Dieguez, creative writer for
My Port Canaveral Transportation. When he isn’t blogging, Eduardo enjoys watching sports such as Basketball and Tennis.