BMW has hopes for hybrid supercar

CRYSTAL balls are always a bit murky — and gazing into them costs cash.

‘Forward-looking’ Bavarian brand wants $300K for the hybrid supercar.

CRYSTAL balls are always a bit murky — and gazing into them costs cash.

Just how much depends on the reputation of the soothsayer and the gullibility of the client.

BMW’s vision is much more transparent and much easier to appreciate than the insights of the local clairvoyant.

And it is BMW that will pay the price if its prognostication is wrong. Its electric/hybrid sub-brand — known as “i” — is a multibillion-dollar investment that amounts to a daring interpretation of the next generation of auto mobility.

In the case of its i8 supercar — this week announced with a local price of $299,000 when it goes on sale in March next year — that amounts to a radically styled and constructed body powered by an electric motor pumping through the front axle and a turbocharged 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine engaging the rear.

Depending on operating mode (BMW’s conventional Eco Pro, Eco and Sport), the motor, engine or both will provide motive power. And there’s no shortage of that. BMW says the i8 will hit 100km/h in 4.4 seconds after the accelerator is depressed. That’s on a par with a Porsche 911 Carrera S, which costs $243,000 in Australia.

Where the Porsche wins is in outright driving dynamics — it eats corners, ferociously.

Overseas test drives indicate the Beemer falls just short of those lofty marks but in BMW’s defence it wasn’t intended to.

The maker has maintained the i8 is a “forward-looking and sustainably focused sports car” rather than a next-gen take on an outright track car, as with its performance M vehicles.

It is also a saleable showcase of how BMW can electrify a tiny engine to act and perform close to the benchmark set by conventional Euro sports coupes.

The hybrid drivetrain is wrapped in a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic and alloy body, replete with vertically opening “butterfly” doors, laser headlights and all the driving aids the Bavarian maker can cram into the computers.

BMW Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher says the car’s closest competitor in terms of looks, construction and performance is the ($279,500) Audi R8.

She dismisses comparisons with the more conventionally constructed and fully electric Tesla S that has just started local sales for $133,000. The Tesla’s strength is its in-house designed and built battery pack, which gives the car an official EV range of 390km based on the European test cycle. In electric mode, the i8 does 37km.

“We see the Tesla positioned against our ($120,400) 5 Series ActiveHybrid in terms of performance and packaging,” Fletcher says. “The i8 is a supercar in terms of its construction, design and ability to push the envelope to show what cars will evolve into. History shows you can’t put a price on that and all of the understanding we’ve achieved with the car will flow through to future BMW products.”

Given only a handful will end up in Australian garages, there’s no reason to doubt the success of the i8, at least as a mobile “proof of concept”.

Viability will depend how fast BMW can make mass-market versions that fuse the technology and performance with what families expect.

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TESLA’S MISSION: CELL AT ANY COST

Tesla needs BMW — and Mercedes-Benz and Nissan-Renault and every other mainstream maker it can encourage — to adopt its electric platform.

The US group announced it would “not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology”.

The reason: economies of scale. Telsa operates in a niche within a niche and until it can earn widespread consumer acceptance for electric cars, it will remain a boutique brand.

To speed up that process, it needs more “pure” electric vehicles in the marketplace, preferably powered by Tesla technology.

The announcement follows news it is in talks with BMW to share EV technology. Benz has a 4.3 per cent stake in Tesla and uses the company’s batteries and motors in its Smart and B-Class electric cars.