2026 BMW i8 Interior, Pictures, Engine
2026 BMW i8 Interior, Pictures, Engine – Just one look at the BMW i8 tells you it’s an ambitiously futuristic exotic sports car. The super wide body, flamboyant butterfly doors that open up and out, plus the radical flying buttresses would not look out of place as a design mock-up of some wild concept sports car at any major auto show, even years after it hit the market for 2014.
2026 BMW i8 Redesign and Update Plan
Exterior and Interior
Another interior item that could use improvement is the lack of AM radio, at all. Yes, it will catch the digital versions of some stations that will broadcast on alternate FM frequencies, but if you like to listen to sports or talk radio on AM stations without an alternate feed, you’re out of luck.
The AM option doesn’t even show up in the various Band choices, which BMW says is due to radio interference caused by the battery or associated systems, and its high standards for sound quality, which prevents AM from being offered on the i3 hatchback as well. But that argument doesn’t fly when every other electric car in the industry offers AM radio that sounds fine, or at least as good as AM radio sounds in other vehicles.
2026 BMW i8 Specs
For folks who may innocently come out to their i8 in a parking lot and find that drivers have squeezed up next to them, the i8 could seriously use the remote control parking feature that’s available in the BMW 7 Series (as well as the Tesla Model S) where you can start and remotely roll the car backwards or forward into a spot using a special key or app, while standing outside the car.
The i8 does offer a special app that will allow you to turn on the climate control remotely, or check/stop/start the charge, but sadly no remote parking feature. Hopefully this feature is coming in the updated 2018 i8 coupe BMW promises for spring ’18, when a convertible i8 version will also arrive, and both will receive a larger battery (up to 11.6 kilowatt-hours from the current 7.1), increased all-electric range closer to 29 km (18 miles), and a slightly increased 369 hp combined output as well.
Engine and Performance
This 8.1 figure the i8 achieved in my week of fuel efficiency-friendly temperatures with it is slightly better even than its official 8.3 L/100 km average, even with plenty of Sport mode driving, since I plugged it in at various Level 2 (240-volt) chargers to maximize use of its paltry 24 km all-electric range. 2026 BMW i8 Interior
Where I didn’t charge up more than once was in my single car garage, even with my L2 sitting there. That’s because the first time I pulled into it, I realized that the unique “butterfly” doors that swing up and out don’t do well in tighter habitats, whether they be smaller garages or crowded mall parking lots. So even with my pulling the i8 as much as possible to the passenger side of my suddenly thin garage, not only did the out-swinging driver’s door want to make contact with the wall, but there’s also a fairly high structural doorsill hump that has to be navigated up and over as well.
2026 BMW i8 Fuel Economy
Once unplugged and you’ve stretched up and out to close those attention-generating doors, the interior that awaits you is clearly driver-focused, but closer to a traditional BMW ambiance. A cockpit feel is produced by a centre console, screen and dashboard all canted towards the driver, with blue “i” accent colours embedded in the steering wheel, on the leather stitching throughout, and least subtly on the bright blue seatbelts. 2026 BMW i8 Interior
Next to the shifter lies the Start/Stop button that’s cantilevered up towards the driver, with an eDrive button directly underneath. When pushed, this e-drive mode attempts to keep you floating on electrons for as long as possible. Like other plug-in hybrids, this period of all-electric near-silence adds to the car’s comfort and futuristic drive feel. Unless you aggressively mash the throttle, the i8 can stay in this mode up to 120 km/h.
2026 BMW i8 Safety Features
In the default Comfort mode, assuming there’s charge in the battery of course, the i8 will also cruise along silently in all-electric mode, but the throttle threshold for the engine kicking in for extra propulsion is lower. An EcoPro mode reduces throttle and climate control response, but seems like overkill when there’s already a mode that largely uses zero gasoline – really, how efficient do you have to get in a car like this? 2026 BMW i8 Interior
The most entertaining mode by far is Sport mode, which banishes all-electric silence and instantly turns the digital speedo and tach an angry red from Normal’s grey and Eco’s blue. This mode also amplifies BMW’s piped in synthetic engine noise, which the maestros at BMW blend fairly harmoniously with the 1.5L three-cylinder that powers the rear wheels. It doesn’t have the shrieking rip of a Ferrari 488 or guttural ferocity of a Lambo or McLaren, but it’s sonorous enough to entice you to work the shift paddles hard, with a sound that’s very nearly as gratifying as on non-plug-in performance hybrids such as the Lexus LC500h or Acura NSX.
2026 BMW i8 Price and Release Date
The i8 was the first of a new breed of six-figure exotic sports cars that now include hybrids like the Acura NSX and Lexus LC500h that aim to show that making fuel efficiency a priority does not mean that automotive beauty or driving pleasure need to be sacrificed. But the i8 one-ups these rivals by not only coming to market first, but coming to market with a more aggressively “green” and advanced plug-in technology, combined with performance and efficiency-helping carbon-fibre plastic body structure.
Sure, one could argue that the seven-figure (and much quicker) Porsche 918 Spyder hypercar introduced in 2013 was truly the first plug-in hybrid exotic sports car. But when you’re talking over a million dollars after taxes, one can better appreciate the ambition of BMW of introducing the i8 nearly four years ago. All of a sudden the i8 is leading this electrified pack in technology, handling and fuel efficiency, if not quite with the outright power, speed and traditional sound of the more Neanderthal if dynamically entertaining gas-only brutes. 2026 BMW i8 Interior
