We were blown away by the i8 on the international
launch but does the car’s wow factor translate onto the UK’s roads? We
travelled to Scotland to find out.
You feel hunkered down in the cabin and even before the
door's closed you feel nicely cocooned thanks to that high sill, and once
you've closed the door you feel the full effect of the swooping interior design
that wraps around you. There's plenty of familiar BMW switchgear in here and
while it's less out of Tron than the exterior it's still a hi-tech
setup.
The dash is dominated by the two large screens - one for the
i Drive and the second that replaces a traditional dash binnacle and does the
job of electronically displaying the speedo, rev counter and a myriad of different
driving modes. Surrounding the gear lever are familiar switches for cameras,
Eco Pro and Comfort modes, DSC and PDC. The steering wheel may be shaped
differently but it contains all of the normal multi-function controls and is
actually nice to hold despite the additional colourway that snakes its way
around the rim in either white or blue depending on what spec you've chosen.
There's plenty of
familiar BMW switchgear in here and while it's less out of Tron than the
exterior it's still a hi-tech setup
Overall it's far less intimidating than the technology
that's packed under the car's carbon fiber 'life module' might suggest so it's
time to hit the starter button and head out to see whether the driving
experience can live up to the dramatic looks. I don't want to go too much into
the car's technology here as it's ground we've covered several times before in
recent issues but to briefly recap in case you missed it, the i8 is a plug-in
hybrid with a complex drive system.
The
i8 is the first sports car in which you can have your cake and eat it, offering
economy blended with masses of dynamic ability and excellent looks
Up front there's an electric motor that develops 131hp and
184lb ft of torque and through a two-stage automatic transmission this motor
powers the front wheels. Sitting behind the rear seats is a three-cylinder
turbocharged petrol engine of just 1.5-litres capacity that offers up 231 hp
and 236lb ft of torque and this transmits its power via a six-speed automatic
transmission to the rear wheels. The batteries for the electric motor are
located in what would traditionally be called the transmission tunnel and on
electric power alone the i8 can be driven up to 22 miles and at speeds of up to
75mph.
Its
hybrid power train and hybrid carbon/aluminium mid-engined chassis will enable
it to hit 62mph in a mere 4.4secs and take apart the very best driving roads
that bonny Scotland has to offer.
What we're more interested in, though, as we negotiate our
way around Inverness is how it's going to perform when the electric motor and
the petrol engine are being used in combination and in anger. Vital statistics
would suggest a 0-62mph time of just 4.4 seconds thanks to a combined output of
362hp and 420lb ft. As we scythe our way through the traffic we're happy to
mooch along in eDrive mode, relying on the electric motor to pull us along.
Interestingly it seems quieter than in an i3 and it takes a little getting used
to swanning along in virtual silence.
