BMW i8 coupe in-depth review - Carbuyer / Mat Watson

this is the new bmw i8 and it kind of looks like it's been sent from the future and that's because it redefines exactly what a sports car is it's more head-turning than a lamborghini aventador and it cannot accelerate a porsche 911 despite all this it's supposedly more economical than a toyota prius in the middle of the car you've got a 1.5 litre three cylinder turbo petrol engine from a mini cooper but don't worry because it's been tuned to 230 horsepower and that combines with an electric motor which is situated here in the front drives the front wheels with 130 horsepower and together you've got a combined 360 horsepower hence the performance now running down the spine of the car you've got your batteries and you charge them up by plugging the car into the mains there and that's why the bmw i8 has an official economy figure of 134 miles per gallon and we'll actually see what it does out on the road in the real world later in this review to go with its high-tech powertrain the i8 has an equally futuristic body which is built from carbon reinforced plastic and aluminium to help keep the weight down but the swooping lines aren't just for show the car silhouette has been carefully formed to enable it to slip through the air as efficiently as possible even these cool looking alloys they're designed to reduce drag and some other features i particularly like are these the u-shaped lights the way you've got these scoops in the body work and they're just crazy make this car look so futuristic and how about these doors oh yeah that's a cool way to get into a car and check this out you can see that the body is actually made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic the i8's cabin isn't quite as futuristic as the exterior and some of the features such as the gear selector and the easy to use idrive infotainment system will be familiar to owners of lesser bmws but overall the quality and attention to detail in the i8 is impressive obviously being a bmw there's absolutely loads of options available for instance you can get lasers for the headlamps which can mimic daylight and then can send a bright white beam 600 meters up the road you can also get some louis vuitton luggage for the boot but that's rather expensive at least the government will help you out with some of the cost as being a plug-in hybrid means the i8 qualifies for a 5 000 pound grant while emitting just 49 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide makes it free from road tax london congestion charge exempt and it will cost you less in company car tax than a bmw 318d it's incredible and you can really show off its eco credentials by putting it into e-drive mode and then you can drive an electric power loan for up to 22 miles and up to speeds of 75 miles an hour and actually if you program a destination into the sat nav it will save enough battery so that for the last part of your journey it drives in electric mode and that means that you can roll up the driveway of your mansion and hear the gravel just crunching under your tyres thing is the i8 is supposed to be a sports car so let's put it into sports mode and see just how sporty it is when you do this the dials turn red the throttle response sharpens and the gearbox holds onto its gears for longer match the accelerator and the i8 will go from naught to 62 miles an hour in just 4.4 seconds which is slightly faster than a porsche 911 carrera s what those numbers don't tell you though is just how this car responds to the throttle when you're actually moving along for instance like 360 horsepower isn't actually that huge a number these days but this car the way the the petrol engine and the electric motor worked together in perfect harmony you've actually got more pulling power than a ferrari 458 italia and that makes this thing an absolute weapon for overtaking but what about the handling well maybe this is one area where the i8 isn't quite what you expect it actually drives more like a gt car than a sports car because while it steers precisely stays nice and flat under cornering and has strong breaks it's not actually set up to put in super fast lap times like a 911 is the thin fuel saving tires mean it can never carry the corner speeds of the porsche and even when you turn the driver's aids off the four-wheel drive grip means this is one bmw you can't actually drift but the i8 isn't meant for the track it's a road car and a blooming good one and really though for driving on normal roads this thing handles absolutely well enough thank you very much and let's face it people who buy this kind of car mainly live in the city and the ability to have that that sudden turn of pace that you get from that electric motor far outweighs the benefits of being able to do skids around around about however there is something ever so slightly unsporty about this car for instance when you're just poodling along and you you put your foot down and the petrol engine kicks in when you first hear it sounds just a little bit rattling you can tell it's just a small engine with only three cylinders now bmw tries to supplement that sound by piping the very best parts of the engine noises through the car's speakers like well have a listen to this and that just sounds maybe a little bit artificial it's slightly overly loud and i just wish you could turn it down at least it helps drown out the tyre roar you get when traveling at speed over rougher tarmac speaking of which despite the adaptive suspension the i8 still bounces about quite a bit over bumps though it's never really uncomfortable there are some other minor idiosyncrasies i've noticed after spending a bit of time with this car one of these these pillars here they're very very fat so when you're pulling out at a junction in town they create a big blind spot and you can often miss cyclists which is not a good thing when you're driving an electric car because they can't hear you coming also you get big blind spots with the rear pillars as well which is once again that's annoying another thing is these really cool led lights which glow blue at night look cool but they're reflecting the windows and it kind of makes you feel like yeah i know you're being invaded by aliens and then look at this right if i wind the window down for a bit of fresh air it doesn't go all the way down so that can be annoying when you're trying to deal with a ticket machine or if you just want to drive along with your elbow resting on the window edge like that which let's face it quite a lot of bmw drivers like to do that don't they then there's the small boot looks like you'll need that bespoke louis vuitton luggage to make the most of the space incarcerates aren't great either even for a sports car and while the i8 has some back seats with isofix fittings there's only room for very small children adults really don't fit as for the call doors well you won't look very cool trying to get out of them in a tight parking space overall though the bmw i8 is such a special thing that you can forgive it of its minor downsides and that brings us onto its real world economy after around 50 miles with the car we averaged 40.5 miles per gallon which is way off the official figure really anyone who can spend 100 000 pounds on a car is probably not that bothered with fuel bills anyway and what about the fact that it's not as good to hoon about on twisty road as a porsche 911 well most people are going to buy this are going to live in the city and they're in the city this car with its sudden turn of pace the fact you can run on electric power alone the way it just looks amazing from the future well it's probably actually a better buy and i think that overall this really is a fabulous new type of sports car but if you want something more traditional you should check out our review of the porsche 911 by clicking up here and the audi r8 by clicking down there click down here you can watch our very latest video review and if you click up there on our logo 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Channel: Carbuyer

Views: 1,726,103

Keywords: BMW I8 (Automobile Model), Coupé (Automotive Class), bmw, bmw i3, bmw electric, electric bmw, electric car, ev, hybrid car, hybrid, bmw hybrid, plug in hybrid, electric sports car, sports car, coupe, electric coupe, hybrid coupe, porsche 911, audi r8, carbuyer, mat watson, rebecca jackson, ginny buckley, premium

Id: OjB3tDIhl6g

Length: 8min 19sec (499 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 04 2014