For the most popular electrified sports car, take one.
BMW announced in September 2019 that its plug-in hybrid sports car would be ending with the release of the I8 Ultimate Sophisto special version. Although the Bavarians did not reveal a date, a report by Autocar at the start of the year stated that the electrified vehicle would be gone in April. Now, BMW has made the official announcement that the assembly of the BMW i8 will cease by April middle.
The HTML8 was launched six years ago. In December 2019, the 20,000th car was rolled off the production line at the Leipzig factory. BMW is claiming that the i8 is the most popular electrified sports car ever, after taking into account sales of the coupe as well as the roadster.
These two models are among the most expensive in BMW’s lineup. The i8 Coupe starts at $147,500, and the i8 Roadster begins at $163,300. The M760i xDrive is another full-size luxury sports sedan that costs $157,700. It has nine more cylinders than the 1.5-liter i8 and has a larger V12 engine.
When you consider that the BMW i8 was initially powered by a diesel engine, it also had a turbodiesel engine. The original Vision EfficientDynamics concept in 2009 used a three-cylinder turbodiesel motor and an electric motor for each wheel. The combination arrangement produced 351 horsepower and 590 pounds-feet (890 Newton-meters) of torque.
In 2014, the production version offered 357 horsepower and 420 lbft (570 Nm). It combined the gasoline-fueled three pot with an electric motor. In 2018, an updated i8 was released with 369 horsepower and the same torque. The battery pack’s capacity increased from 7.1 to 11.6kWh. Last chance for the car is the UltimateSophisto, which is available in both body styles. It’s limited to 200 cars with a variety of styling tweaks.