We were hoping that by the end of this year, BMW engineers would have peeled off most of the camouflage covering their i8 coupe prototypes, but as you can see, that’s not going to happen – unless, of course, Munich surprises us over the next couple of weeks.
What we do get from these fresh spy shots of the i8 that was captured once again during cold weather testing in Europe is a less obstructed view of the car’s upper profile as the company’s people removed some of the swirly wraps covering the side windows.
While the overall design remains close to the original i8 Concept seen at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, BMW has added some height to the cabin and reworked the side window designs and doors, which ditch the see-through plastics of the study for a conventional structure. The rear side windows are also larger in size than on the concept and feature a more prominent version of BMW’s traditional Hofmeister kink.
The 2+2 plug-in hybrid sports coupe will combined the use of BMW’s new 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine developing somewhere around 220-horses and driving the rear wheels, with a single electric motor producing approximately 130-horses turning the front end.
Together, the hybrid system will deliver more than 340-horsepower, which may not sound much for a sports car these days, but thanks to the lightweight construction, the i8 will be able to deliver the performance required with a 0-62mph (100km/h) sprint time in under five seconds and an electronically top speed of 155mph (250km/h).
BMW has said that it expects the i8 Coupe to return an average fuel consumption of about 3.0lt/100km (equal to 78.4 mpg US or 94.2 mpg UK), but without clarifying if this figure includes the use of the electric motor.
The i8 Coupe should make its world premiere next year and go on sale in 2014, followed by the i8 Spyder in 2015.
Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoop
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