Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/07/15/review_bmw_i8_plug_in_hybrid_supercar/

BMW i8 plug-in hybrid: It's a supercar, Jim, but not as we know it

Vroom-vroom, sort of

By Alun Taylor

Posted in Personal Tech, 15th July 2014 12:55 GMT

Review I almost felt sorry for the BMW press team last November at the i3 press launch. The questions hacks kept returning to were: “When is the i8 going on sale?” and “When can we drive it?”. Fair play to the BMW staffers, who didn't stop telling us how groundbreaking and generally fantastic the i3 was. As indeed it is.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Spark and ride: BMW's i8 plug-in hybrid sports car

But at last, we do have answers to those two questions: Saturday 19 July and last week respectively. Yes, The Register has spent a day charging around Scotland in the BMW i8 and if you have £95,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can trot down to one of the UK’s 43 BMW i outlets and get yourself on the waiting list.

What do your 95 large ones get you? A wet dream of a supercar made from aluminium, carbon fibre and fancy plastics powered by a 231bhp 1.5L 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine at the back, and a 131bhp (98kW) electric motor at the front. Peak output for the combined system is 362bhp (270kW) and 570Nm (420lb-ft).

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

1.5-litre, three cylinder petrol engine cutaway

Between the two motors, mounted in the centre console, is a 96-cell lithium-ion battery delivering 7.1kWh, but that’s the gross figure – only 5.1kWh is available to the system. It can be recharged by either plugging it into a domestic power socket rated at up to 16 amps or using the petrol motor and recuperative braking system.

The basic construction of the BMW i8 follows the same pattern as the BMW i3, so there is an aluminium “drive module” that houses all the not-so-oily-bits. On top of this is the carbon fibre “life module”. The exterior, meanwhile, is the made from a mix of aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Barebones: the drive module and the life module

Thanks to that fancy-pants construction, the i8 weighs in at 1,490kg, of which 98kg is accounted for by the battery pack. That’s not bad for a hybrid and is about the same as a McLaren 12C, albeit 110kg heavier than a Ferrari 458.

From the outside, the i8 is nothing if not striking. It may not be quite as wild as the 2009 Vision Efficient Dynamics concept but the designers have come up with something which – if not what I’d describe as pretty – is certainly both dramatic and distinctive yet not straying too far from BMW’s current design language.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

The boot is deep rather than particularly capacious

Though technically a 2+2, the rear seats are really useless for anything other than soft bags, groceries and small children, though not all at once. The boot under the rear hatch is deep and voluminous by supercar standards, but forget about getting a set of golf clubs or large items of luggage into it.

You may think it odd that I’m talking about practicalities – like rear seat space and luggage capacity – but the fact is the i8 is a surprisingly easy car to drive, just not to get into. Levering yourself under the dramatic dihedral doors and over the sizable sills is an art form in itself.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Nice doors but getting into the i8 is an acquired skill

Once ensconced in the comfortable cabin – which is nowhere near as radically future-Ikea in design as the i3’s – you can hit the Start/Stop button, slip it into Comfort mode and toddle off down to Tesco with no more drama that you would in a Nissan Micra. Except that the world+dog doesn’t stop and stare when you drive past in a Micra.

Cabin cruise

The cabin is a bit of a tech-fest, dominated by two 8.8-inch screens, one in the instrument binnacle and one above the centre console. As far as driver environments go, it all looks more complex than it is. If you have ever had cause to play with any BMW iDrive system, you’ll feel right at home in the i8 in very short order. As I said, this is a very easy car to live with.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

You get two displays on the dashboard to keep an eye on things

That said, this isn’t a Micra… or even a BMW i3. Indeed, BMW was at pains to underline the sporting capabilities. Apparently, the i8 has the lowest centre of gravity of any BMW, the lowest coefficient of drag (0.26) of any BMW and the engine has the highest power output per litre of any BMW car. And don’t think you are stuck with an automatic boulevard cruiser. The petrol engine is actually hooked up to the rear wheels via a six-speed box which comes with flappy-paddle override controls.

As with most modern hybrids, the way the power is shunted around is close to infinitely variable. Under electric-only drive, the power goes through the front wheels but when both motors are working together, the i8 swaps seamlessly between four and rear-wheel drive. Left in Comfort mode, the driver is blithely unaware of what’s doing what, however, the driver can stick his oar in if he thinks he knows better.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

The Comfort Zone

The BMW i8 has three-and-a-half driving modes. Comfort is the default and in this mode the vehicle management system makes the calls in regards to which motor to use when and where. If you are suffering from environmental angst, you can choose eDrive in which mode the ‘leccy motor can propel the car for up to 23 miles (37km) and at speeds of up to 75mph (120kmph).

Usefully, you don’t have to concentrate on the dash to hold the maximum electric-only speed. Unless you push the throttle pedal very sharply, the car will simply run along on battery power at the maximum speed until the charge is so depleted it has to fire up the three-pot to keep you moving.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Electric motor cooling duct

In Comfort and eDrive, you can also opt for EcoPro (that’s the half), which smooths the throttle response, changes the transmission profile and tinkers with the air conditioning or heating to maximise range and minimise consumption and emissions.

And then there is Sport – haha! Push the drive selector to the left to engage Sport and the instrument display turns red and flashes up the words Don’t Do Anything Stupid. Not really, it just turns red. In this mode, the petrol engine – made in the UK at BMW's Hams Hall plant incidentally – is permanently on. It’s audible even at idle and even more so under hard acceleration when the artificially amplified noise resembles a naturally aspirated V6 rather than a turbocharged 3.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Sport mode... says it all really

Personally, I’m not a fan of amplified engine noises. I’d rather the i8 sounded like a Tie Fighter at full chat than an M3, but that’s just me. Driving in Sport mode is the only way you can put significant amounts of juice back into the battery, since the engine directly recharges it when you’re coasting or driving down hill or in any other way that means it doesn’t have devote all its energies to hurling you at the horizon.

How does the BMW i8 go? Well, it will hit 60mph (96kmph) in 4.4 seconds and press on to an electronically limited 155mph (249kmph). But those aren’t the most important things to say about performance. No, it’s the way in which the i8 surges from around 40mph to 100mph (from about 64kmph to 160kmph) that is truly impressive, especially if you are in Sport mode with the petrol engine already up and running.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Fast enough for you? 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds

My Irish Times writer driving partner and I were caught out several times by the effortless and entirely undramatic acceleration that had us up to and over the three-figure mark in the blink of an eye.

Prediction power

Thankfully the roads were empty and Scotch plod nowhere to be seen. While there are a few faster cars than the BMW i8, there are none this fast and yet this undramatic. I’m putting this down to the 250Nm of torque that the electric motor throws at proceedings whenever asked and the high-pressure exhaust that spins the petrol engine’s turbo up in the blink of an eye (and the flash of a speed camera and the loss of a driver’s licence).

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Keeping a low profile: could be a challenge on London's speed bump strewn roads

What’s even more impressive is the way in which the performance has no impact on the comfort or handling. Even when pushing hard down a twisty Highland A-road, the BMW i8 was almost insultingly easy to drive, something I can see annoying the sort of driver who believes supercars should be inherently hard to manage.

It’s a quiet car too, even at very high speeds. Impressively, not even yawning chasm-like potholes upset proceedings. This is no doubt helped by BMW opting for wheels and tyres with a larger diameter (20 inch) but narrower profile than the norm for a car of this type – 195 at the front, 215 at the rear. The net result is the same contact patch but a more civilised ride.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Regenerative braking goes unnoticed

In Comfort mode, the only recharging comes from the regenerative braking, which harvests energy from both the front and rear axles. Recuperation in the BMW i8 is significantly less than in the i3.

In fact, there’s no way for the driver to tell that energy harvesting is taking place other than by looking at the readout on the dash. BMW has rightly decided that overly aggressive recuperation would get in the way of outright driving enjoyment and that would be unacceptable in a car like the i8.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Prediction machine: if it knows your satnav route, it'll make adjustments to suit

As you might expect the i8 is a damnably clever car. Assuming you are following a satnav route, the navigation and power management systems will start to predict your needs to maximise economy.

Let’s say your route takes you along the M60 and the satnav knows the roads is very busy. It will start to conserve battery charge, so come the inevitable stop-start driving over the Barton Bridge and past the Trafford Centre it can use the battery and electric motor rather than the petrol engine. At all times the i8 pulls away from standstill under battery power so getting away involves none of the usual supercar histrionics.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Charge it from the mains at home, if needs must

Thanks to the 42-litre fuel tank, the i8 has a maximum touring range of 373 miles (600km) and subjected to the EU’s plug-in hybrid economy tests can eke out 134.5mpg (57.18km per litre). Of course that number depends on how much of your driving is done using electricity sucked from the mains, so it is an entirely movable feast.

What I can tell you is that in 250 miles (402km) of very hard driving and no recharging, I averaged 32.9mpg which for a supercar really isn’t at all bad. CO2 emissions are quoted as 49g/km, which makes this the most environmentally friendly car of its type you can buy.

BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Supercar

Also available in black

The Reg Verdict

The BMW i8 is sports car from a science fiction film made real. Visually stunning, as clever as cyborg fox, as easy to drive as a family hatchback and as fast as something sporting a Ferrari or McLaren badge. The i8 is a technical tour de force and an absolute joy to drive.

Some petrolheads will doubtless take issue with how easy the i8 is to pilot and look after, under the misguided belief that thoroughbred sports cars should be demanding mistresses that are absolute sods to park and often catch fire. For those us more used to living in the world of A380s, iPhones and Chromebooks, that argument is absurd. Has BMW rendered all other supercars obsolete with the i8? Pretty much. ®