Production of the BMW i8 will be discontinued in mid-April 2020, the company said. Now the plant in Leipzig produces 200 samples of the farewell edition of Ultimate Sophisto. Its assembly began last year, and in December 2019 one of these samples became a twenty-thousandth copy of the i8. “It is the most successful sports car in the world with an electrified drive system,” the firm assures.
The 1.5 turbo truck, combined with a generator engine on the rear axle and a separate electric motor on the front axis, has become revolutionary in many aspects. Its carbon-fiber passenger capsule, built on an aluminum chassis, helped the company move to the use of carbon fiber in the body’s power structure and on conventional models. Its hybrid system (combined recoil of 374 hp and 570 NM in the latest version) and battery (11.6 kWh after the reform) contributed to the development of nodes of other hybrids and electric cars of the brand.
By the way, the filling “i-eighth” won the international competition Engine of the Year in 2015 and won the first place in other nominations from 2016 to 2019. I8 will not have an immediate continuation. However, according to unofficial data, in 2022 may appear ideological heir to the i8, sports car i12, based on the concept BMW Vision M Next, first as a hybrid, and later as a clean electric car.