BMW show off the i8 and launch their new BMW i sub-brand

 

BMW's ultra-cool Vision EfficientDynamics hybrid performance car has a new name, and launches a new range of high-performance electric vehicles.

This week BMW Ireland shipped in their ultra-cool electric hybrid car - impressively proving that it really is possible to put the words “ultra-cool electric hybrid” together in one sentence, and at the same time launched a new BMW sub-brand the ‘BMW i’ series.

Until this week, BMW’s superfast, superlight, aerodynamic, batmobile-like concept car had been known as the Vision Efficient Dynamics. But to coincide with the car being craned into the Aviva Stadium for a few lucky petrolheads to have a gawp at (see picture, below), came the announcement that when the car goes into production, it will be known as the BMW i8.

The very fact that it is number eight in the range gives a strong hint that there’s lots more light, eco-friendly electric wizardry to come from the boys from Munich. In fact, car number two in the range is already planned – a fully electric powered four-seater that has until now been known as the BMW Megacity Vehicle Concept and will henceforth be known as the i3.

But getting back to the i8, what you get is a car that has emissions to match the Toyota Prius, putting it into tax band A, but which can go from 0-100km/h in 4.8 seconds and will have a top speed (limited) of 250 km/h. Its radical new plug-in diesel hybrid drive train uses just 3.8 litres of fuel and keeps CO2 emissions to 99g/km making this green super car of the future one of the cleanest cars on the road.

The car has been designed to minimise on anything that’s heavy, so much of the body is made of glass, the seats are ultra thin and made of wool (yes, wool), and the wing mirrors double up as the hinges on the space-age doors.

An aluminium chassis houses the powertrain and aside from all the glass, the passenger cell will be made from high-strength but extremely lightweight CFRP - Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic. The use of CFRP should cancel out the extra weight of the extra batteries needed to power the car when it's in electric mode.

That’s all grand, but the thing that got everyone excited when one of the car’s main designers Felix Baerlin showed off his creation at the Aviva was the moment when he pressed a button that closed the kidney grilles in the nose of the car and the grilles lit up electric blue.

When out on the road, this will signify that the hybrid is in electric zero-emissions mode (the vents in the grilles aren’t needed when the electric power is in use). Whether a little halo will appear at the same time over the eco-friendly driver is not clear.

At the moment there is just the one car in existence, but it looks like the i8 will be available to buy by 2013 and, unusually for a concept car, there are high hopes that the cars that go on sale will be pretty close to the version that made a brief visit to the Aviva this week.

John Ives is the MD of BMW Ireland and he says that he believes the i8's sports car dynamics coupled with its efficiency will make it an attractive proposition.

“The BMW i8 will be a high-performance sports car that you’ll want to take on extended journeys outside the city,” he says. “It'll offer superior driving dynamics combined with significantly increased range using electric power. It’s a new chapter in our industry."

Nick Bradshaw