So, for a while now, all BMW keys have looked the same and worked the same, with no real notable changes over the past few years. However, according to Bimmerfile, that may not be the case for the sporty but green i8, as press shots purpotedly show the hybrid’s key fob – it looks like a smartphone with a propeller badge.

Like the interior of the Tesla Model S, here too you will be struck by the size of the touch-sensitive display, which, in-keeping with the proportions, is very big for its application.

It also doesn’t seem fake, with everything fitting together nicely design-wise – this is almost certainly the real thing and it’s pretty enough to at least partly ease the pain of spending $135,700 on a car that’s about half as fast as it costs.

From what we gather, it tells the range, state of charge and the time, though it has two screens to browse through (there are two dots above the word “Connected,” at the bottom of the display).

Only problem is it just looks a bit too big and flashy, but then we get back to the price and it kind-of makes sense.

By Andrei Nedelea

Editor’s Note: We found another photo of a different and plainer looking BMW i8 key fob on David Khaykin’s FlickR page, so we contacted BMW USA on December 16 for an explanation and more details, but we have yet to hear back from them

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