BMW i8

[Realist]

That's the plan yes.

 

[ckessel]

Basically, Realist only is happy with the equivalent of a street legal race car. And that's fine and the MS doesn't fit that mold. I'm fine with Tesla conceding that tiny, tiny niche of the market.

 

[Realist]

A Lotus Exige or a 911 GT3 RS are street legal race cars. An i8 or Evora are nothing like that.

 

[dennis]

IMO, that depends on whether or not CO2-emissions are part of the equation. Personally I would rather see folks driving around in the i8, than in ICE two (plus two) seaters from Alfa, AMG, Aston, Audi, Chevy, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lambo, Lotus, Maser, McLaren, Merc, Porsche, Spyker, SRT etc.

While I love the driving experience and environmental friendliness of my P85+ and 500e, there is no way I would dump my 12C for an i8. If I'm forking over substantially more $$ than the cost of the P85+, I expect substantially better performance. Now if someone could come up with 12C performance in a BEV/PHEV that was in the same price category, that would be interesting. So far those cars cost 3x-4x (Rimac, SLS) which is getting into P1/918 territory.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

There seems to be two people on the planet that thinks the i8 is going to steal customers from the Model S: Realist and a Bloomberg-employee that doesn’t have that much hair that I don’t know the name of.

The i8 seems targeted at people who currently drives ICE-only cars, and who will loose their day jobs if they don’t have access to the kind of refueling times only an ICE car can offer. And Realist here seems to be a perfect example of that target audience.

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While I love the driving experience and environmental friendliness of my P85+ and 500e, there is no way I would dump my 12C for an i8. If I'm forking over substantially more $$ than the cost of the P85+, I expect substantially better performance. Now if someone could come up with 12C performance in a BEV/PHEV that was in the same price category, that would be interesting. So far those cars cost 3x-4x (Rimac, SLS) which is getting into P1/918 territory.

Have you driven the i8?

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[1] My point was that the i8 has pathetic performance specs for an ICE vehicle at it's price point. If it was a true EV, then it wouldn't be so bad. Compared to ICE performance vehicles, it has a sad performance to price ratio.

[2] If BMW cannot make a hybrid with great performance, there is zero chance that they would even come close on a performance EV attempt.

[My numbers within bracket parenthesizes]

1. And my point was that there happens to be a certain externality that IMO is worth at least thinking about.

2. Why?

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Extra points for alphabetizing the manufacturers

Thanks :smile: But this time I just copied an almost identical post that I wrote a couple of months ago…

 

[dennis]

Have you driven the i8?

While they are not available for test drives in the U.S. yet, I know what 4.4 seconds 0-60 feels like compared to 3.2 seconds. And no one that I know of thinks the handling of the 12C is deficient.

 

[dennis]

This i8 was spotted this morning in the Bay Area (photo courtesy Bay Area Car Spotters on FB).

 

[Shumdit]

That is a color I would normally love, but that is not a good look with all of the black. It looks like someone tried to put a body kit on a plebeian car to make it look like a Lexus LFA

 

[JRP3]

Agree, the black elements look odd. I also don't like the hollowed out "scoops" or whatever they are on the sides of the rear decklid. Otherwise it's a nice looking vehicle.

 

[GSP]

The i8 is clearly a demonstration what is possible with a hybrid. I see no other car combining these dynamic talents and fuel economy. It was never meant to be purely electric instead they wanted to achieve the performance of a M3 with the economy of a city car.

I have driven the Model S and despite offering strong acceleration and an ultra smooth powertrain I cannot consider it to be sporty. It’s just not engaging because the power limiter kicks in too early. There is also not a lot feedback coming from the steering and the tires, although the car has an excellent turn-in thanks to its low center of gravity. Traction is ok but with TC off it’s difficult to manage the power. Without the power limit the Tesla would be one of the best handling cars in its weight class. But it’s still a heavy car.

I honestly judged the Roadster’s handling to be horrendous. The chassis is not made for this kind of weight. Still, I had more fun in the Roadster than in the Model S because the power limiter kicks in much later. It’s challenging to drive this car over a mountain road and its fun. With the Model S that fun is very limited. And that is the main problem I have with the Model S. If you take away all the magic EV stuff it’s actually a very dull experience when driven hard.

And at that point the i8 is a completely different car. From what I heard this car works with the driver. It encourages the pilot to experience the limits of grip and traction with its active torque vectoring. You can drive silent on pure EV mode (with 2 gears!) through town. But if you want to give it a stick over your favourite road, on the Autobahn or on a track it will deliver.

It might not come as a surprise for many of you but the Realist has actually ordered an i8 :-D

Congratulations on your purchase. I am sure you will enjoy it, and I look forward to reading your first impressions, and long term impressions as well.

GSP

 

[VolkerP]

BMW released pricing today - 44 pages!
http://www.bmw.de/dam/brandBM/marketDE/countryDE/newvehicles/allfacts/pricelist/BMW_i8_Preisliste.pdf.download.1397119157646.pdf

Prices start at 126k Euro, that would be $174k.

 

[Adm]

Incl salestax?

 

[dsm363]

Incl salestax?

Does it matter?
Wow. That's steep. Obviously not pricing this to sell in any real volume.

 

[ChadS]

Nope, it's a halo car, much like the ELR. Selling a lot isn't the point; showing off what the brand can do is (so then people will be impressed with the brand and be more likely to buy something else).

 

[Doug_G]

Halo and goodbye.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

What are they thinking?!?

The Fisker Karma failed because it wasn't priced high enough?

 

[doctorwho]

The i8 is certainly fast. Last July I was driving on an Italian Austostrada near Milano at about 130km/hr and 2 i8s in close formation and full blue and white camouflage drove past me incredibly fast, they must have been cruising at over 200km/hr

 

[LuckyLuke]

Cruising at that speed is not so difficult, all modern middle/luxury/sportcars can do that. It's how (fast) you get there that matters

 

[mnx]

I thought it was supposed to be ~130k in the US?

BMW released pricing today - 44 pages!
http://www.bmw.de/dam/brandBM/marketDE/countryDE/newvehicles/allfacts/pricelist/BMW_i8_Preisliste.pdf.download.1397119157646.pdf

Prices start at 126k Euro, that would be $174k.

 

[pgiralt]

I thought it was supposed to be ~130k in the US?

The 126k euro appears to include 19% VAT. Without VAT it is 105k euros which at today's exchange rate is around $145k for the base model. Of course any applicable local taxes will apply and there will likely be some kind of premium to pay for shipping costs. My guess is that it starts at no less than $150k.