#37km

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Top 5 Things to Know About the BMW i8

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the BMW i8 is finally here on Indian shores! The car was launched in Mumbai and we were there to witness it in the flesh. The i8 is a car with which you can do blistering speeds on the highway, cruise quietly in the cities and look jaw-droppingly cool. And best of all, you can be kind to our planet Earth while doing all this.

Top 5 Things to Know About the BMW i8

  The i8 is what we call a plug-in hybrid. Think of it as something that offers the best of both worlds in terms of power and efficiency. This car has a 1.5 litre, 3 cylinder, twin turbocharged petrol engine that churns out 228 bhp and works like any other regular internal combustion engine. But it also has an electric motor that creates 128 bhp. When these 2 motors work in unison, the total power output is 356 bhp. As a result, from a standstill, the i8 can rocket to 100 kph in just 4.4 seconds. Keep your foot down and eventually you will be doing 250 kph

This level of performance, from a plug-in hybrid, is nothing short of impressive. The electric motor powers the front wheels via a 2 speed steptronic automatic transmission while the rear wheels are driven by the petrol engine through a 6 speed automatic gearbox. BMW has very cleverly engineered this car by doing things like mounting the heavy high voltage battery pack low down in the middle of the car to provide an almost perfect 50:50 weight distribution and because of that, the i8 (unlike most traditional hybrids) drives beautifully on twisty roads.

If you drive the i8 while it is set to Comfort mode, as long as you keep the speedo below 65 kph, the car uses only the electric motor for propulsion. In this mode, the i8 emits a barely perceptible high pitched whine that makes it sound like one of those Hollywood sci-fi spaceships! BMW claims a range of 37km while running solely on electricity and the lithium ion battery pack used in the car can be charged up in 2.5 hours via a normal household wall socket. The batteries can also be recharged from the energy recovered from the vehicle while coasting or braking.