TAKE THE ROUGH ROAD WITH OUR SMOOTH CAR.
The BMW i8 is a plug-in hybrid sports car developed by BMW. The i8 is part of BMW's electrified fleet and is marketed under the BMW i sub-brand. The production version of the BMW i8 was unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, and was released in Germany in June 2014.Deliveries to retail customers in the U.S. began in August 2014. A roadster variant was launched in May 2018. Production ended in June 2020.
The first challenge is getting in. The wing doors (frameless on the roadster) mean you have to duck, and the high sill means you have to scrunch your legs up to lift over. The swing design and high sills also rule out pockets or cup-holders in the doors. But hey, you don’t buy this car if you aren’t prepared to pay a small price for drama. Visibility is a bit of an issue too. The screen pillars lie back and close, so in tight bends or roundabouts you’re rocking in your seat, switching between looking through the windscreen and the side windows. The Roadster’s rear humps turn diagonal reversing into a nightmare. There’s no rear camera either - only sensors, albeit good ones.
The BMW i8 looks absolutely stunning whichever colour and wheel combination you go for. The narrow LED headlights, elegant curves, spaceship-style rear lights and distinctive flying buttresses all make for a low-slung car with more presence than almost anything else on the road; laser headlights are optional, delivering an even more penetrating and bright beam pattern than the LEDs do – themselves a fairly recent development in headlights.