Sunday 29 December 2013

BMW i8 - 0-60 in 4.4 Seconds

The BMW i8 sports car may appear to be the perfect recipient for a thorough performance upgrade from BMW’s M division, but the German’s have confirmed that no BMW i8 M will be manufactured. Let’s start a partition!


Under that perfectly crafted bonnet sits a 1.5-litre, turbocharged, three-cylinder engine. Which doesn’t sound like much, but it churns out a respectable 231bhp and 236 pound-feet of torque, which is then delivered to the rear wheels by a six-speed automatic transmission. An electric motor, meanwhile, sends 131bhp and 184lb-ft of torque through a two-speed automatic to the front wheels.



BMW i8 (10) Petrol at the back lithium at the front.



Using all 4 wheels the total system power sits at 362bhp and 320lb-ft of torque, and allows the i8 to launch to 60mph in just 4.4 seconds and to think this all done by a 1.5-litre engine, a motor and a couple of batteries, that’s crazy.


The BMW i8 is just one car in the i-brand line-up which BMW considers as a separate model range from all other BMWs including M-tuned BMWs. It appears that there will be no mixing of the i and M ranges.


I don’t think that it would make sense to mix these two sub-brands in one car. We have the Ms, we have the i, and we have the BMW, the core brand.


Cypselus von Frankenberg, BMW Group Head of Technology Communications

No comments:

Post a Comment