This Roadster’s electric!
WITH a sunny Bank Holiday weekend (or so we are told) under way and 2.5million leisure trips set to be made, what better way to celebrate than with an open-top, electric-hybrid two-seater sports car? BMW’s i8 Roadster can go from rest to 62mph in 4.6 seconds and on up to 155mph. It also comes in a gorgeous metallic copper paint. All you need is to fork out the £124,000 starting price — a £12,000 premium on the hard-top Coupe.
Amazingly, despite the weather, Britain is the biggest market in Europe for open-topped cars.
It’s fascinating to watch the i8’s ‘gull-wing’, or ‘butterfly’, doors swing up and out — though getting in requires some deportment lessons.
There’s plenty of pulling power from the lean, turbocharged, 231 bhp, 1.5-litre, three-cylinder engine — a variant of the plug-in unit used in the Mini Countryman — and 143 bhp electric motor, which, together, give a total 374 bhp.
Running on 20 in tyres, the all-wheel drive petrol engine sends power to the rear wheels, while the electric motor propels the front. Aerodynamic styling keeps turbulence and wind noise to a minimum, whether the top is up or down.
In near-silent electric-only mode, the i8 will hit 65 mph before the petrol engine kicks in, or 75mph if you press the all-electric ‘eDrive’ button. Its electric-only ‘zero-emissions’ range is a claimed 33 miles — useful for city dwellers, where combustion-based engines are discouraged.
It’s a wide car, so, on narrow mountain roads, I spent a lot of time breathing in to squeeze past oncoming holiday coaches and Lycra-clad cyclists. Its thick front pillars can obscure the view, too, when negotiating tight bends. BMW claims a total range of 273 miles, rising to 372 with the optional 42litre tank, and average CO2 emissions of just 46g/km.
The i8’s 355-volt lithium-ion battery pack can be charged in 4.5 hours from a domestic socket or three hours from a fast charger, with 80 per cent charge achievable in two hours.
The acoustically insulated fabric top opens or closes in almost 15 seconds at speeds of up to 31 mph.