Video: 2014 BMW i8 Review

Now you'll notice overall, the styling has its own kind of layered approach, and there's a purpose to that. You'll see aerodynamics being a huge part of how the car works and how it stays efficient. You've got one intake here that is for a cooling radiator in the front, and then even here, this little intake is for what BMW calls an air curtain, the air floats around here and actually creates a barrier alongside the spinning wheel, which actually improves airflow. Now, BMW calls the flow of that air the flow stream, and it actually is guided up like so, and then ends up shooting through this duct here. So this is actually a functional element, this essential hole in the car. This air chute serves a purpose, but it also makes a heck of a unique styling element for the car. Now, the hybrid aspect of the i8 might sound familiar because you can plug it in and charge it up, and you can go, according to BMW, 22 miles in electric-only mode before a gas engine takes over and takes you a few hundred miles more. According to the EPA, it's actually more like 15 miles of range on electric power. The difference here is that the front wheels are powered by an electric motor driving a two-speed transmission, and the rear wheels are driven by a 1.5 liter turbo charged three cylinder through a six-speed transmission. So you've got all wheel drive with one type of motor in the front, one in the rear. Now, you can charge it up before you head out, that's kind of the point of any plugin. BMW provides this basic household charger that you would plug in and you can recharge the depleted battery in about three and a 1/2 hours. Now, if you have a level two charger, you could do it in more like an hour, hour and a 1/2. One element that always gets attention in a car is doors that go upward. Some people call these scissor doors. Typically scissors go straight up. This is more of a wing, call it a scissor wing if you wish. One of the ways that BMW saves weight is through the use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, which has about half the weight of steel, but equal strength. You can actually see the carbon fiber here on the door, it's exposed in a couple places. It also makes up this entire cell, which BMW calls the life module, that's where the people are. Now, you'll see from looking in that this is a two plus two, which really means two seats in the front and two things in the back that look like seats, but couldn't really accommodate much of anyone, but you'll be glad to have this because the storage compartment in the back is only 4.7 cubic feet, which is actually quite small. For a car as extreme looking as the i8, there aren't that many drawbacks. It's a little bit tougher to get into because it's low slung. And once you're inside, I noticed that the side windows don't go down all the way, which seems like a small thing, but I did have a little trouble reaching the toll booth today on the way to the studio. I've also found that the A-pillars here in front jut forward, so they are kind of in your line of sight and close enough to your eyes that they're pretty wide and it can be a little bit obstructive. The driving experience in the i8 turns out to be very good, and typically BMW. There is a lot of power, all told. The electric motor gives you a 129 horsepower and 184 pound feet of torque. The gas engine, even though it is small, puts out 228 horsepower and 236 pound feet of torque. That's more output per liter than any other BMW engine. Put 'em together, you've got 357 horsepower, 420 pound feet of torque. What does that give you? Zero to 60 in about 4.2 seconds, with all of the power sources included, and it does it without slipping because it is all wheel drive, that also plays a part in the handling, which is good. The balance front to rear is again, typically BMW, very good. Overall, it behaves exceptionally well. When you're in sport mode, it seems like the front wheels, the rear wheels, both motors are talking to each other and really being seamless. I think the only shortfall is if you're in one of the more eco-friendly modes, eco pro modes, and then you nail the accelerator 'cause you need to go, that is when the car is not prepared, and you'll feel a little bit of a bucking while the gas engine turns on to shoot you forward. Otherwise, the driving experience and the ride quality, very good. Now, the visibility to the rear is actually pretty good. And for parking purposes, you have lots of cameras, forward, back, there's a surround camera system for essentially looking down on top of the car. You also have forward and rear sonar sensors, so you're set in that regard. BMW goes out of its way to make this look like a regular car. The main difference is you have an eDrive button that you can press that puts it in all-electric mode, which is certainly powerful enough, but not quite as quick as the car can be. Brings you up to 75 miles per hour. If you wanna go up to 155 miles per hour, you need the assistance of the gas engine as well. The design of the cabin here is actually kind of multilayered in its own way. It copies some of the shapes from the outside. Oftentimes, I find vehicles a little bit too busy, too many textures and stuff, but somehow this happens to work. Really great to have a 10.2 inch screen up here, close to your line of sight, and still have the iDrive controller down here, right where your hand rests. The interior is a little low on storage space, partly because of the battery back runs the length of the vehicle down low, so not a lot of depth here, one small cup holder here, and two better ones back here if you happen to be double jointed. If it were up to me, the i8's electric only range would be longer than 15 miles, and then once it hits that point, the efficiency would be better than 28 miles per gallon combined on premium fuel. But it's not just about efficiency. Hybrid technology serves a lot of purposes, and in this car, it serves the purpose of all wheel drive and high performance. If you don't know the story of the Tesla Model S, you probably don't recognize that efficiency, high-tech and luxury all go together. They are all about image and they tend to equal success when combined (engine humming)